Google

Remember Microsoft in the 1990's? The company created lots of millionaires, as it grew to become the technology standard in the information age. Many employees working up in Richmond, Washington saw their stock double and split over and over again. Can we make the same case for Google today? Are the folks working for Google on the same path as those who worked for Microsoft in the 1990's?

I think Google is a great search site. But to me, that's all it is. It's a door to somewhere else. I don't stay on Google's website. I don't read or click any ads. I either type a search word in the Google toolbar on my browser or at their homepage, then scroll through the result sets, and click my way off on to some other domain. Other than Blogger, that ends my use of Google. (Does Blogger make money?)

When I look around at my office mates, I rarely see a Google webpage on their desktops. They seem to use Google the same way I do. I hear them say "Let me do a Google search," but then off they go to somewhere else.

When I think of a website where I linger, read content, and even occassionaly click on an ad, it would be Yahoo. I look around my office, and can add that my coworkers often have a Yahoo screen up on their browsers. When folks are looking for a break or diversion here, they check news, sports, and stocks on Yahoo.

Much has been made of the Google lock-up expiration yesterday, and that the stock was actually up for the day. Maybe this is a sign that those who predicted lots of stock sales and a tanking share price were wrong. Jim Cramer said on his radio show yesterday, that he thought the stock was going much higher. Maybe it will. Speculation can do crazy things to stock prices, in both directions. Right now, everyone seems to think it's a must-own stock.

The battle of Greed vs. Fear is the ongoing struggle on Wall Street. Will Google be like Microsoft was in the 1990's? Will Google be like many-a-net-stock circa 2000? I don't know. We'll see how it plays out.

(I don't own Google, although I've traded it from time to time. I do own Yahoo. )