Letters to the Editor

Letters posted here are associated with the following article:
The Google Earth economy
Recession may be taking a bite out of the U.S. economy, but so far the world's biggest search engine is doing just fine. Emphasis on "world"
Andrew Leonard [2008-04-17]
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  • Below the theoretical, abstract realm...

    I am impressed with Google. Today, I used Google Maps to plan a trip. It worked well, worked quickly. The flip from maps to satellite pictures is nifty, especially for smaller distances.

    All the Wall-Street-Analyst-Big-Time Baloney is okay. But actual performance is better. Google seems very good, compared with other big companies.

    -- timbuktom
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    Thursday, April 17, 2008 03:29 PM

  • Online advertising is like gold plated Buggy Whips

    The Microsoft analogy is perfect, what a piece of crap that company is. For the next POC look no further than Apple. All of these so called Tech giants are last centuries business models with rehashed technology.

    Are the dissidents in China hitting those Google ad clicks, from their jail cells maybe. to make cigarette money. The business of adclicks is slightly more perverse than Wall Street finance.

    -- aveutter
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    Thursday, April 17, 2008 08:07 PM

  • Global Company

    When will companies in the US learn that the internet and Globalization means that their customers come from EVERYWHERE. I live in Canada and it is very difficult to find a business who wants to deal with Canadians. Shipping is difficult or non-existent. Coupons are for US customers only. Advertising is targeted to US customers without regard to those outside the US. I frequently encounter spectacular ads with great deals only to find in the fine print that the product or service is only available in the USA.

    Some businesses don't even seem to know we exist. Just TRY to find the page that says explicitly "We don't export to Canada" without going through all most ALL the hoops to purchase.

    Many of the larger companies have figured this out. eBay & Amazon to mention a couple. Of COURSE Google has large sales outside the US. They sell to much more than the 'domestic' market. Any self respecting internet company would.

    -- terminalman90
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    Thursday, April 17, 2008 10:56 PM

  • @aveutter

    I disagree. The thing about Google's model is that it can survive things like click farms, because Google's customers can measure what happens when people click through. Are people buying stuff? Looking at the pages you want them to look at? Etc.

    If you are getting a ton of clicks with no benefits to you, you (and everyone else) are going to want to pay less per click. But that might be just fine with Google- as their variable costs of serving an ad are basically $0, they'll pretty happily take half the price on twice the clicks.

    Advertising effectiveness has always been very difficult to measure quantitatively. Online advertising changes that fairly significantly.

    That said, I think GOOG is overvalued myself; it's just too hard to predict what's going to happen in the next 5-10 years. Then again, pretty much every time I've bet against Google by not buying its stock, I've been wrong...

    -- syphax
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    Friday, April 18, 2008 07:01 AM

  • Bush dollars?

    Do these figures reflect that devaluation of the Bush Pesos that our Clinton dollars have become?

    -- dogu44
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    Friday, April 18, 2008 02:11 PM

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