Google after the bell for 7-11-06: GDrive and 1,000 new employees

Google shares closed at $424.56 today, a rise of $6.36 or 1.52% over Monday's close. With the only big news of the day concerning Google was a capital expense of opening a 1,000-seat customer assistance center in Michigan, apparently that assisted in Google shares climbing today to the tune of over 1.5%.

It's good news when you think about it -- Google's AdWords program, the search text ads you see when searching at www.google.com (and millions of other sites that partner with Google) are responsible for almost all of Google's revenue -- billions of dollars per year. This kind of exposure needs some support, yes?

With competitor eBay having some dissension in the ranks and with Google's Checkout system poised to *finally* challenge eBay's PayPal unit (although not on eBay itself, since it's banned the Google Checkout service), Google's momentum can be felt in almost every corner of the Internet these days. One thing that is incredible entertaining to watch is the "me too" product back-n-forth I keep seeing with Microsoft and Google. This is a game of "winner takes most" (not all), so keep your eyes peeled -- like crispy carrots -- to Google's foray into the nooks and crannies of every computer.