Google Earnings Out; Stock Soars

Google said third-quarter profit climbed 26 percent as more customers used Web search ads.

Net income rose to $1.35 billion, or $4.24 a share, from $1.07 billion, or $3.38, a year earlier, accordng to Google.

Excluding revenue passed on to partner sites, sales expanded to $4.04 billion, compared with the $4.05 billion average estimate. Total revenue climbed 31 percent to $5.54 billion.

Google stock rose $36.98, or 10 percent, to $390 in extended trading after closing at $353.02 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Mossberg: Google's G1 In The Same Class As Apple's iPhone

Walt Mossberg writes:

I have been testing the G1 extensively, in multiple cities and in multiple scenarios. In general, I like it and consider it a worthy competitor to the iPhone. Both devices run on fast 3G phone networks and include Wi-Fi. Both have smart-touch interfaces and robust Web browsers. Both have the ability to easily download third-party apps, or programs.

But the two devices have different strengths and weaknesses, and are likely to attract different types of users.

By far, the G1's biggest differentiator is that it has a physical keyboard, which is revealed by sliding open the screen. The keyboard proved only fair in my tests, with keys that are too flat and that can be hard to see in bright light, and with a bulge in the body on the right side that you have to reach over to type. But, for the many people who can't stomach typing on glass, the G1 keyboard will be a welcome sight.

His full rview is here.

Early Google Chrome Review

I just downloaded Google's new browser, Chrome, this morning.

First impression: Two thumbs up.

The download was very quick and after the download there was no need for the computer to be shut down and re-started.

It seems to run smoothly and a few obvious features really work for me. When I am posting a comment to other blog sites, an automatic spell check kicks in. I just checked my Yahoo and Gmail accounts and the spell check kicks in with them also.

When you open up a new tab, a screen shot appears of your six most visited sites. I can see how this will make things very easy to move to top pages rapidly.

Immediately upon highlighting a word you get the option of conducting a Google search of the word.

There's also the sample uncluttered look that Google is known for. You will notice the difference between this look and Internet Explorer/Firefox immediately.

It's definitely worth at test drive.

You can download Chrome here.

The First Test Of Chrome

Walt Mossberg has been testing Google's new browser, Chrome, for a week. His report is here.

Google Plans to Launch A Web Browser

Google plans to launch a web browser called Google Chrome in a challenge to Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer, WSJ is reporting.

The browser launch is likely to be announced soon, the paper said, citing unnamed sources.

Info on the browser will be at this, not yet functional, web site: http://www.google.com/chrome

UPDATE: The browser's Beta version will be launched tomorrow.

Update 2:

From Google:

On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff — the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

Update 3:

Tech Crunch has screen shots of the new browser, here.

Google: We Have No Idea Why We Bought Into The Inferior AOL

Google announced today that an analysis of its $1 billion investment stake in advertising partner AOL is souring and that it could lead to a substantial charge against its future earnings.

Google bought a 5 percent AOL stake in 2005, largely to lock up AOL as an advertising partner. It is not clear how much Google has earned from supplying AOL advertising, which would make it possible to understand whether the purchase of the AOL stake actually made any sense.

As for the deterioration of the AOL stake, Google said in an SEC filing late yesterday:

There can be no assurance that impairment charges will not be required in the future, and any such amounts may be material

This won't, however, cause Treasury Secretary Paulson to go into his rescue mode. After all, it' s only a billion dollars, and in the first half of this year, alone, Google earned $2.55 billion.

So Much For Google's New Competitor, Cuil

MyWay reports:

Anna Patterson's last Internet search engine was so impressive that industry leader Google Inc. (GOOG) (GOOG) bought the technology in 2004 to upgrade its own system.

She believes her latest invention is even more valuable - only this time it's not for sale.

Patterson instead intends to upstage Google, which she quit in 2006 to develop a more comprehensive and efficient way to scour the Internet.

The end result is Cuil, pronounced "cool." Backed by $33 million in venture capital, the search engine plans to begin processing requests for the first time Monday...

For starters, Cuil's search index spans 120 billion Web pages.

Patterson believes that's at least three times the size of Google's index, although there is no way to know for certain. Google stopped publicly quantifying its index's breadth nearly three years ago when the catalog spanned 8.2 billion Web pages.

This morning I searched both services for "Economic Policy Journal". At Google, EconomicPolicyJournal.com showed up on the first page. At Cuil, economcpolicyjournal.com was not on the first page, when I clicked for page 2, it took forever to load at least two minutes. Still no economicpolicyjournal.com.

I then searched for the phrase "ron paul credit card transactions", which is currently driving a lot of traffic to our site. Google has 135,000 results, with all on the first page appearing relevant.

This was the Cuil result:

We didn’t find any results for “ron paul credit card transactions”

I would test even more, but now the first page of a search is slow loading, and I just don't have the time.

It appears that what Cuil is really good at is hype. As they would say in Texas, "All hat, and no cattle."

Google Shares Plunge 9.77%

Google shares closed down $52.12 to $481.32 on dissapointng earnings.

Google management said economic turmoil in the United States and parts of Europe appears to be causing consumers to click less frequently on the ads that generate virtually all its profits.

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt described the economy as "challenging," in an investor conference call and Google's chief economist, Hal Varian, even participated in the company's conference call for the first time to discuss business conditions.

Google Honors A Classy Lady

While Great Britain is giving Martha Stewart a difficult time about entering the country, because of her "Show Trial" conviction for lying to the U.S. government's SEC, Stewart was a "Guest of Honor" in San Francisco this past June at the annual Google National Sales Conference.

The theme of this year’s conference was The Edge. Google considers Stewart's company as being a leading edge organization.

Even Google founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, showed up to "help" Martha.