Is the Trend Google's Friend

Google Trends is another fascinating addition to Google's quiver. My search produced a couple of interesting results: interest in the search term "venture capital" has declined over the last two years; in fact, the very trendy "Web 2.0" eclipsed it in December. But Google has not had a "hit" in a long time. As Business Week points out in its July 10th edition, "An analysis of some two dozen new ventures launched over the past four years shows that Google has yet to establish a single market leader outside its core search business, where it continues to chew up Microsoft and Yahoo." Does Google need a hit? With a market cap of $122 billion, quarterly revenues in excess of $2 billion, and net profit margins of 26%, maybe not. But the media and Wall Street seem to expect something more from Google than better search: Google is now seen as a media company. In the media business, when a company releases a number of properties that fail to garner consumer interest, its stock suffers. One wonders if Google's disappointing record with new consumer applications will soon catch up with it.