Google just can't seem to stop ruffling the
feathers of people it seems. After a spectacular earnings report a week ago Thursday, GOOG today settled down big time to a
semi-stratospheric $398.90 at market closing -- a drop of one-hefty figure: over 4.5% from Friday's close. One of the
large items (and we mean, extra large, as in biggie, mucho grande, super size, whatever) of the Google news
day was the apparent moaning it's made to Microsoft about the billion-dollar search bar featured in the next iteration
of the world's
largest web browser, Internet Explorer. Version 7 is due soon, and it will feature an integrated search bar -- just
like its competitor Mozilla Firefox has done for years -- right into the browser. Guess which search engine it will be
-- at least at present -- defaulting to? You win the stuffy bear prize if you can guess. And
no, it's not Alta Vista. You have two more guesses.This is a big deal because it is estimated that over 30% of web searches -- responsible for almost all of Google's
billions in quarterly revenues -- are performed now using search bars integrated into web browsers and the like. That
makes the one-half inch by two-inch search bar in your browser the most hot real estate outside buying an
island in the Caribbean. Seriously. Name an island with a $100 billion value (Google's market cap).
But
outside this issue, the correction currently happening to GOOG shares is rather odd, even in light of what commonly
happens to share prices after great quarterly results. While GOOG was up to $440 just a few days ago, it's
now back down to earth (that's an oxymoron) to under $400. Who knew? Just look at the chart up above --
today's intraday movement. Looks like a downward trajectory that just doesn't happen a few weeks after a stellar
quarter.
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