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Google--what you get for $400 a share |
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Written by Staff, CNET News.com
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Tuesday, 28 February 2006 |
 Search giant Google is hardly just about search anymore. Its engineers are dabbling in dozens of projects, ranging from digitizing books to mapping your neighborhood. With a stock price topping $400 per share, a market cap of more than $100 billion and a war chest nearing $7 billion, Google is the "it" tech company of the moment. The search giant posted record revenue of $1.58 billion for the third quarter, up nearly 100 percent from a year ago. Certainly, Google's roots are in search, but the Mountain View, Calif., company is expanding its offerings at such a rapid clip that news headlines can barely keep up.
Google is simultaneously making waves in the publishing industry with its Google Book Search project, shaking up the classifieds market with its mysterious Google Base service, scaring instant message and telecommunications companies with Google Talk, wowing Web surfers with its 3D Google Earth mapping service and being a vague threat to numerous other companies with its forays into video, e-mail and desktop search.
Though many of the services are free, Google will no doubt figure out a way to charge for some of them so it's not so dependent on advertising. Right now, the company gets nearly all its revenue from advertising, either keyword-based search advertising or contextual display ads on partner Web sites. more...
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