Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) continues to have the ambition of becoming the largest advertising company in the world. Well, at least that's the thought I have held for over two years now. Is it a coincidence that Google's online revenue growth in 2007 was larger than the combined advertising revenue of the 17 top offline media companies? No.

Henry Blodget, who couldn't be trusted as a Wall Street analyst (which is why he isn't one any longer), runs Silicon Alley Insider and contrasted Google's growth with media powerhouses Viacom, CBS and Clear Channel (among others). He came to the conclusion that Google is pounding up hard on the media landscape as it comes to taking ad revenue share from just about anyone in the business.

Blodget says: "A single media property, Google.com grew by $2 billion. All the offline media properties owned by the 13 offline media companies -- all of them -- grew by about $1 billion." After looking at the 13 other companies, it's not hard to imagine that Google beat them all -- combined. This isn't a surprise to me at all -- Google's foray into advertising isn't a mistake and the way it's taking market share is also not a mistake. In the U.S. alone, Google's ad revenue totaled about $8.7 billion for 2007 -- up 44% from 2006 revenue. That's 5.7% of $153.7 billion spent on advertising in the U.S. last year.

Sometimes Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) makes enemies even when it's trying not to. For example, the world's leading internet search company caused a stir with its Google News website, which basically aggregates news information from global sources into one area, but doesn't publish content of its own at all. Some European countries didn't like that.

Traditional media feels threatened by Google in many ways -- and it should feel this way. Innovation can disrupt industries and turn them upside down. And the media world cannot stay the same now that the internet is involved. But Google wants to partner with media companies, according to David Eun, Google's VP of content partnerships. He's right -- Google is in the partnership business to derive advertising revenue. I've said for years on BloggingStocks that Google's aim is to become the world's largest advertising company. To those who think Google wants to get into the content business, I say that's not what Google wants to conquer here.

Eun said, "That's absolutely not the case for us," when he responded to a comment from a Bear Stearns analyst about Google's interest in becoming a content creator. So far, Eun is right -- Google has shown absolutely no sign of getting into content businesses like print, television or movie entertainment. It is heavily engaged, however, in the business of partnering with those industries to monetize them in different ways in the face of declining subscribers, viewers and moviegoers. The dMarc buy and Google's possible foray into television is proof that it sees a morphed content future. But is Google really a wolf in sheep's clothing here? Only time will tell.

Although it seems like a long shot that Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) could end up buying the wireless handset division of Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), the company may indeed end up becoming a player in the wireless industry one way or another. At the least, Dell may want to hook up with a larger partner with some kind of wireless computing clout.

If the rumored Motorola deal doesn't work out, would Dell work with Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) on a new wireless smartphone based on Google's Android software platform? There are rumors that a partnership could be announced next week at the Mobile World Congress in Spain. The question remains: why on Earth would Dell want to leap into the brutally competitive wireless arena, even with Google as an ally?

Perhaps Google needs a high-profile hardware partner to build a flagship handset to showcase its Android software system for mobile phones. "Senior Industry Sources" have claimed that a partnership between the two is on tap for next week, although an actual phone may not be the product to be announced. Dell could announce a tablet PC running the Android platform instead of an actual wireless handset, for example.

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) will be reporting its fourth quarter results today after the close of the market. Of course, the arguably hottest internet company will also be reporting on its overall fiscal year 2007 results as well. Normally, Google takes analyst expectations, smashes them to bits, and then acts like nothing happened. Will the search giant do the same thing this afternoon?

Google's shares have been shaken from a high of over $700 this past Christmas to under $543 today, as the company has joined in with the overall market teeter-totter amid continued housing worries and recession talk and FUD that spreads like wildfire every week. Will it recover some lost ground in after-hours trading if the company reports another standout quarter? Perhaps -- and it could lead to a tech stock recovery tomorrow in standard market-nuttiness fashion. Remember, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) had an excellent quarter as well just recently. As usual, the company's stock yawned and fell asleep.

Google is expected to report earnings of $4.45 per share on $3.45 billion revenue -- results any company in any industry would love to have. If Google once had dreams of a $900 share price, the company may never get there if results continue to match (or slightly surpass) analysts' expectations during 2008. Regardless, the company's leaders -- founders Sergey Brin, Larry Page and CEO Eric Schmidt -- will be around for a few decades to ride the company's potentially turbulent waves.

[DISCLOSURE: the author holds a long position in MSFT]

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt often says that the mobile frontier is the next biggest opportunity for Google. In terms of the math, he's correct: there are many more cellphones in use worldwide than PCs -- all it takes is to get customers accessing the web on their phones. So far, success has been mixed, however, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iPhone is changing the game. iPhone users are going on the web constantly.

The web search giant has just taken a large leap in that direction, now that it has announced YouTube Mobile availability on millions of existing cellphones. The more customers that buy advanced, 3G-capable wireless phones, the more potential customers Google will have accessing YouTube content and even uploading videos directly from their handsets.

YouTube mobile product manager Dwipal Desia indicated, "It's basically the full YouTube experience you can get on the desktop -- on the phone." With YouTube easily the world's most popular online video property, can Google transfer this to the mobile arena in the next year or two? Getting customers to use YouTube Mobile is the largest barrier -- because once you've used it, it's hard to resist (from my experience, anyway).

Although Google referenced the iPhone and phones from service provider Helio, the company did say that the full YouTube video experience was not available on handsets from the second-largest wireless carrier, Verizon Wireless. The next step, of course, will be for Google to find out how it can monetize YouTube Mobile.

It's been said before that excellent tools and access to them can actually lead to less intelligent students and practitioners of any craft. From the high school student to the accountant, is this premise correct? After all, the abacus and the pocket calculator changed the face of math. Could Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) change the face of critical thinking in its users?

According to a study out of University College London, so much quality access to instant information could be responsible for hampering the ability of many to become quality thinkers. It's a rather interesting premise: Google, known for employing more smart people than any other public company, is contributing to the dumbing down of its customers.

Are those born after 1990 really jeopardizing their critical thinking skills by searching for any and all information on anything using Google? The study mentioned the lack of critical and analytical skills among young people, students, professors, lecturers, and "practitioners" as they all have grown accustomed to "searching horizontally rather than vertically." This is in reference, I think, to those that read headlines but don't drill down into the real content.

Wow -- instant gratification comes to the web. Surprised? You shouldn't be. The web's instant reach to so much has really pushed the concept of on-demand access to new heights. The study also indicated that those in the 12-to-15 age bracket did indeed understand what intellectual property meant -- but that copyright protection procedures were unfair.

In what could be a spot-on analysis of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s real intention with the upcoming FCC radio auctions, Jeff Lindsay with Sanford Bernstein says Google isn't in the auction to win anything. In general, you bid to either win what you're bidding on or you're hedging your bets as you shill bid in an attempt to pump the bid price for the competition. With that said, what could Google be up to if it's ready to bid on the FCC's wireless airwaves, but has no intention on really using any radio spectrum in the future?

Lindsay indicates that Google's recent moves in the wireless industry have already made the market realize open policies for customers and devices are the wave of the wireless future. In effect, its goal is already achieved to a point where it really does not need its own radio spectrum to directly compete as a wireless service provider.

Would Google really get knee-deep in an area that's outside of its core business, and end up letting that become a distraction? Google CEO Eric Schmidt has repeatedly said that the mobile frontier harbors much more promise than even the PC web browser frontier it currently helps dominate. Was Google's real intention with applying to bid for the FCC auctions coming up shortly just a scare tactic to cement its open handset alliance position? Possibly -- but now it's playing in a new sandbox with established bullies. The auctions should be very interesting.

Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR), the small but ambitious wireless broadband internet provider, is teaming up with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) to distribute the internet search leader's web-based applications with its internet service.

Clearwire at one time was a takeover target rumor in the market. And who was the rumored acquirer? Google, of course. It's no secret that Google has grand ambitions in the wireless internet space, although reality is far from its ambitions at the moment, with its limited network in Mountain View, California, where it is headquartered.

Google is also expected to bid heavily in the upcoming FCC auctions later this month in what could be seen as an effort to construct a nationwide wireless data network for whatever purpose suits it. For right now, though, it may be content getting its Gmail and Google Calendar in front of more customers with the Clearwire distribution partnership.

Clearwire indicated that both companies share the same mission by saying, "Both companies are built on the foundation of providing a simple to use, rich and open Internet experience, and we believe the addition of these communications tools will be a tremendous benefit to Clearwire's customers."

Is Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) becoming desperate when it wants to study consumer brain patterns to find out why its competitors are so successful? Microsoft Research wants to expand its presence in 'brain-computer interfaces' for its coming push into natural computer interfaces that will someday replace keyboards and mice. Of course, Ole' Softie has been talking about speech recognition for what seems like an eternity. So far, it has barely taken off in the consumer marketplace from what I have seen. Does anyone you now interact with their PC using mostly voice commands?

Microsoft competitor Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) made the computer mouse popular nearly three decades ago to really jump-start user interaction with PCs, and added 'multi-touch' to 2007's iPhone to again invent another way of computer interaction. What else is coming down the road? Whatever it is, Microsoft wants to be there first this time. The world's largest software maker seems to be honing in on reading a customer's mind to enable PC interaction. Science fiction? So far, yes -- but possibly not for long.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), whose internet search engine finds results to customer queries in what seems like perfect fashion, isn't staying back from this field either. Although Google is keeping mum on its ambitions to connect the human mind with a computer system or interface, it continues honing its artificial intelligence systems that power those instant search results millions of times an hour around the world. Google, though, is famous for keeping things under wraps until a release date is imminent. I guess we'll have to wait and see which is first, if any.

[The author holds a long position in MSFT]

Another day, more worries about Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s growing global power. The internet advertising juggernaut has so much influence over the spread of information (and the advertising dollars that come along with that) that it's hard to see just how powerful the company has become in just the last three years alone.

So here we are in 2008, and -- again -- government regulators are growing more concerned about the power Google has. In a capitalist society, where does the free market end and the power of government begin? That's a formula nobody can answer. When the U.S. government made its case against Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) a decade ago, it included pieces of how the company trampled on its competitors using illegal tactics. I've never agreed with the Internet Explorer part of that litigation and never will -- since, after all, consumers are free to download any free web browser they please. Is the growing government concern over Google's growth in the same venue? It shouldn't be.

Is anyone forcing you to use Google every single day? Nope -- it's your choice. Google ascended to the top spot in internet search without distributing a single piece of software to its customers or using any kind of illegal tactics at all. It simply provided the best and most complete experience. Customers recognized that and have made Google the top choice in internet search (and advertising along with it).

Does that require regulation? How absurd. It's true that Google could provide privacy details (and much more) to each customer at regular intervals -- but if it screws up, users will leave Google. But, when a company that does so much right for its consumers grows large because of that fact, competitors turn to any tactic they can to try and stem the flood. Making a better product, in the free enterprise tradition, would seem a better tactic.

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s Android was really set up to be displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week. After such a high-profile and hyped introduction this past fall, it would have been very Apple-esque (as in, releasing products right after announcing them at Macworld) of Google to facilitate some kind of hardware product introduction for this month's CES in Las Vegas. But Google's in the software business, not the hardware business.

What Android product did show up at CES this week, then? Asian electronics manufacturer Wistron NeWeb was the sole supplier of any Android pre-release hardware product. The GW4 model, which reminded some of the ubiquitous BlackBerry handset, was on display this week sporting some common features from today's wireless handset manufacturing universe.

Will 2008 be the breakout year that some of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s products and services besides search-targeted ads are able to start contributing revenue to the company's bottom line? Pundits will be watching for that, as will Google shareholders, who are mostly large fans of the stock, but reserved in the "eggs in one basket" approach Google still has when it comes to revenue diversification.

Are Google's products like Gmail, Docs and Spreadsheets, and Calendar holding up their fair share? Gmail is the only product that includes advertising, and Google is careful not to say how much revenue it receives from customers clicking on ads within Gmail. How about Google Base? It's just an entry point into Google Search. Google Trends? Google Book Search? Google Page Creator? Google Notebook? All of these nifty products are -- for now -- free of charge to use, but don't have any kind of ads, which could directly produce revenue.

Google's hope for 2008 revenue beyond search advertising rests in many areas, from YouTube advertising to generating an actual income from subscribers to its Google Docs and Spreadsheets product for large installations (universities, companies, small businesses, etc.) that would prefer not to spend a small fortune on Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Office, and who also want web-based portability for their documents anywhere there is a web-connected computer.

Does the web search leader have plans to diversify revenue even further than these two examples? Surely -- but gleaning that information from the company will be met with competitive-advantage silence for now.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a leader when it comes to being a "green" kind of company. It shuttles employees from the Bay Area to its Mountain View headquarters in biodiesel vans, has what is considered the be the largest solar array in corporate America and uses alternative energy in its operations, unlike most of the business world.

But what about all the actual electricity the company consumes? It has huge data centers all over the world that power its search and web product network, and these campuses consume gobs of electricity off the global grid. So, does Google purchase electricity for these data centers from electric cooperatives that generate all that juice with standard coal-fired electricity generation plants? Hard to tell, because the company won't say.

It's hard to imagine Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) as anything but a search engine for most consumers and even business leaders. The company that probably has more grand ambitions than any I can think of may want to tackle providing computing horsepower to needy customers in the future, though -- and in turn, become a service provider of sorts. This is on top of its ambition to become the largest advertising network the planet has ever seen.

The scale of Google's global network and how it works technically would boggle the mind of many a Ph.D. It's those brainiacs who designed the sprawling network of Google's cheaper-by-the-dozen normal computer servers who are now trying to find more ways to utilize all that computing power outside of providing search results in a fraction of a second to billions of queries every month. As Google continues to build massive data centers, what is it going to do with all that power? Become Skynet, the infamous, world-dominating global computer network from the Terminator movies? Nah -- there are bigger business fish to fry.

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) continues its cruise into providing GPS-based location information to anyone with any device by partnering with GPS device maker TomTom. Google will make it easier to search for and then send business addresses from Google Maps to TomTom portable navigation devices.

Although services that send web-based driving directions to portable GPS devices already exist, this is the first time a Google Maps search can be sent directly to a TomTom navigation device with a click. Although anyone can enter an address into a GPS device and receive driving directions, it's much easier and faster to use a web service like Google Maps to locate the most updated information and then send that to a GPS in seconds.

As such, Google has added a "Send to GPS" link to the existing "Send" feature available when any customer uses Google Maps. For salespeople and other traveling professionals, being able to locate a business address within a few seconds and sending that information to your GPS device with a single click will be immensely valuable.

This new partnership will also make Google Maps more customer sticky than it already is. Google Maps competes with Yahoo! Maps, MSN Live Maps and AOL's MapQuest.