November 17

It finally happened. Google surges past $400, another psychological milestone for investors, Google-ites alike. Click here to know more. Could this stock really be the Microsoft-killer? My postulation is that it will take till the launch of Windows Vista to seriously ask some real questions of Google's sustainability. That, however, is also a tricky issue. Google is stomping on the lawns of many tech titans from EBay, Amazon, Yahoo that this lateral diversification of its services may dilute its strategic focus. Not to mention its single-source of revenue from online advertising, a highly risky pillar of financial dependence. The point is, Google stock will suffer a crumble and how the company reacts, in terms of its response to Wall Street and also to its own employees, will determine their long-term attractiveness as a stock. Google's anti-establishment stance towards Wall Street, e.g. its reluctance to announce quarterly figures, among other non-conformist actions, will be tested by the market during a plunge.

Enjoy it while it lasts, Google.

Here's another article. on the rumored interest of Google on Riya, a photo facial-recognition software company. They are having a TechCrunch Launch party tomorrow. More info on the party found here. Just how cool is this bit of technology? I have not had the chance to test its beta version yet but an user can basically use the software to train the algorithm to recognize faces from your pictures, allowin you to search across yur pictures, not just for topics, tags, but your friends. More info found here.