Why Google shouldn't go public

Grok Headline matches for Why Google shouldn't go public

Why Google Should Go Public

Why Google Should Go Public 12/29/2003 02:51 PM
Search Engine Lowdown Dec 29 2003 1:24PM ET

Google goes public

Google goes public 02/14/2003 02:10 PM
By Michael V. Copeland. Much has been made of the transformation of Google's name from spelling-challenged noun to grammatically questionable verb. ...

Google Going Public?

Google Going Public? 01/08/2004 08:26 PM
Ordinary investors are staying away from the markets, but now along comes Google, the world's most popular internet search engine and its talk of a initial ...

For Google, Going Public Is Far From a
No-Brainer

For Google, Going Public Is Far From a
No-Brainer 04/26/2004 03:26 AM
Los Angeles Times Apr 26 2004 7:11AM GMT

Can Google Be Public and Private?

Can Google Be Public and Private? 05/31/2004 07:02 PM
E-Commerce Times-10 hours ago ... For all that Google has done to revive interest in technology and IPOs in recent weeks, it also has provided new fodder for a long-running debate: Is going ...

Google to be $30B giant by going public

Google to be $30B giant by going public 07/28/2004 09:55 PM
EastDay Jul 29 2004 1:44AM GMT

Google to Go Public in $2.7 Bln Offering

Google to Go Public in $2.7 Bln Offering 04/29/2004 07:20 PM
AP via ABCNEWS.com Apr 29 2004 11:09PM GMT

Google and the public good

Google and the public good 12/19/2004 03:24 PM
For those of us who are still consumers of those bundles of printed content known as books, the importance of today's news of Google's library deal is almost impossible to overstate. It's just huge.

While the Web has represented an enormous leap in the availability of human knowledge and the ease of human communication, its status as a sort of modern-day Library of Alexandria has remained suspect as long as nearly the entire corpus of human knowledge pre-Web remained locked away off-line between bound covers. "All human knowledge except what's in books" is sort of like saying "All human music except what's in scores." There's lots of good stuff there, but not the heart of things. Your Library of Alexandria is sort of a joke without, you know, the books.

Now Google, in partnership with some of the world's leading university libraries (including Stanford and Harvard), is undertaking the vast -- but not, as Brewster Kahle reminded us at Web 2.0, limitless -- project of scanning, digitizing and rendering searchable the world of books.

Google's leaders are demonstrating that their corporate mission statement -- "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" -- is not just empty words. If you're serious about organizing the world's information, you'd better have a plan for dealing with the legacy matter of the human species' nearly three millennia of written material. So, simply, bravo for the ambition and know-how of a company that's willing to say, "Sure, we can do it."

Amazon's "look inside the book" feature provides a limited subset of this sort of data. But where Amazon has seemed mostly interested in providing limited "browsability" as a marketing tool, Google has its eye on the more universal picture. And so the first books that will be fully searchable and readable through this new project are books that are old enough to be out of copyright. The public domain just got a lot more public. (And presumably, as John Battelle suggests, we'll see a new business ecosystem spring up around providing print-on-demand physical copies of these newly digitized, previously unavailable public-domain texts.)

This is all such a Good Thing for the public itself that we may be inclined to overlook some of the more troubling aspects of the Google project. Google is making clear that, as it digitizes the holdings of university libraries, it's handing the universities their own copies of the data, to do with as they please. But apparently the Google copies of this information will be made widely available in an advertising-supported model.

For the moment, that seems fine: Google's approach to advertising is the least intrusive and most user-respectful you can find online today; if anyone can make advertising attractive and desirable, Google can.

But Google is a public company. The people leading it today will not be leading it forever. It's not inconceivable that in some future downturn Google will find itself under pressure to "monetize" its trove of books more ruthlessly.

Today's Google represents an extremely benign face of capitalism, and it may be that the only way to get a project of this magnitude done efficiently is in the private sector. But capitalism has its own dynamic, and ad-supported businesses tend to move in one direction -- towards more and more aggressive advertising.

Since we are, after all, talking about digitizing the entire body of published human knowledge, I can't help thinking that a public-sector effort -- whether government-backed or non-profit or both -- is more likely to serve the long-term public good. I know that's an unfashionable position in this market-driven era. It's also an unrealistic one given the current U.S. government's priorities.

But public investment has a pretty enviable track record: Think of the public goods that Americans enjoy today because the government chose to seed them and insure their universality -- from the still-essential Social Security program to the interstate highway system to the Internet itself. In an ideal world, it seems to me, Google would be a technology contractor for an institution like the Library of Congress. I'd rather see the company that builds the tools of access to information be an enabler of universal access than a gatekeeper or toll-taker.

The public has a big interest in making sure that no one business has a chokehold on the flow of human knowledge. As long as Google's amazing project puts more knowledge in more hands and heads, who could object? But in this area, taking the long view is not just smart -- it's ethically essential. So as details of Google's project emerge, it will be important not just to rely on Google's assurances but to keep an eye out for public guarantees of access, freedom of expression and limits to censorship.

The public face of Google

The public face of Google 08/21/2004 10:08 PM
The Scotsman Aug 22 2004 1:46AM GMT

Google to go public in US$2.7b offer

Google to go public in US$2.7b offer 04/30/2004 08:35 PM
New Straits Times May 1 2004 1:03AM GMT

Google Goes Public at $85/share

Google Goes Public at $85/share 08/19/2004 09:45 AM

Google Cleared to Go Public

Google Cleared to Go Public 08/18/2004 04:35 PM
"SEC Accepts Registration Statement".

Online giant Google gets set to go
public

Online giant Google gets set to go
public 04/28/2004 01:35 AM
CTV.ca Apr 28 2004 5:17AM GMT

Google, now public, comes under review
by analysts

Google, now public, comes under review
by analysts 08/20/2004 02:31 PM
Reuters Aug 20 2004 7:21PM GMT

Google has strong first day of public
trading

Google has strong first day of public
trading 08/19/2004 06:30 PM
After a bumpy ride toward becoming a publicly traded company, Google Inc. finally saw its stock start trading on the Nasdaq exchange at around noon Eastern Daylight Time Thursday and with a strong opening at $100.01, up from its $85 initial offering price. The stock, which trades under the GOOG ticker symbol, closed at $100.34, up 18 percent.

As It Goes Public, Google Says It Is
Worth Up to $36 Billion

As It Goes Public, Google Says It Is
Worth Up to $36 Billion 07/26/2004 10:50 PM
New York Times Jul 27 2004 2:55AM GMT

Is Public Opinion Turning Against
Google?

Is Public Opinion Turning Against
Google? 03/25/2005 01:20 AM
Addict3d.org Mar 25 2005 5:35AM GMT

Banks are not happy with Google going
public

Banks are not happy with Google going
public 08/21/2004 03:06 PM
Pravda Aug 21 2004 6:28PM GMT

Google to go public at 12 billion dollar
value

Google to go public at 12 billion dollar
value 01/05/2004 10:25 PM
Deepika Global Jan 5 2004 9:39PM ET

Google Direct Public Offering?

Google Direct Public Offering? 04/30/2004 11:20 PM
So much has been said about the other things. I'm left with a question. If the Google S-1 doesn't define the market they will list in (NASDAQ, NYSE), do they still retain the option to do a Direct Public Offering?...

Google to go public in $2.7 b stock
offering

Google to go public in $2.7 b stock
offering 04/30/2004 04:18 PM
Deccan Herald Apr 30 2004 8:48PM GMT

Google Goes Public? The Rich Get Richer

Google Goes Public? The Rich Get Richer 04/25/2004 04:39 PM
Tiger Woods, Shaquille O'Neal and Henry A. Kissinger are among those lucky enough to own a sliver of Google.

Google Expected to Go Public in 2004

Google Expected to Go Public in 2004 01/05/2004 06:51 PM
SiliconValley.com Jan 5 2004 6:21PM ET

Loving Google but Not Its Public
Offering

Loving Google but Not Its Public
Offering 08/05/2004 11:23 PM
Silicon Valley's digerati, traditionally the biggest proponents of initial public offerings of technology stocks, are overwhelmingly bearish on Google's anticipated offering.

google.public.support.general FAQ

google.public.support.general FAQ 04/10/2004 05:02 AM
google.public.support.general FAQ
http://www.geociti es.com/googlepubsupgenfaq/

This article includes answers to questions that appear especially frequently in the newsgroup google.public.support.general. It is not intended to replace Google's official FAQs and information for webmasters. Please read them if you haven't already done so:

http://www.google.com/help/ faq.html
http://www.google. com/googlegroups/help.html
http://www.google.com/webmast ers/

This will be added to the search engines section of all the Internet MiniGuides.[Thanks tp Tara ResearchBuzz]

So Google Is Almost Public. Now Comes
the Hard Part.

So Google Is Almost Public. Now Comes
the Hard Part. 08/17/2004 09:10 PM
Having taken the world by storm and on the brink of raising several billion dollars in an initial public offering, Google must prove that its success wasn't an accident.

Google hopes to go public this month

Google hopes to go public this month 07/12/2004 05:41 AM
Mad.co.uk Jul 12 2004 10:05AM GMT

Google Files For $2.7B Public Offering

Google Files For $2.7B Public Offering 04/30/2004 12:12 PM
asia.internet.com Apr 30 2004 4:14PM GMT

Rich to Get Richer if Google Goes Public

Rich to Get Richer if Google Goes Public 04/24/2004 03:54 PM
New York Times Apr 24 2004 8:15PM GMT

Google to take first step towards public
offer

Google to take first step towards public
offer 04/25/2004 08:41 PM
Straits Times Apr 25 2004 11:22PM GMT

Google May Delay Public Offering

Google May Delay Public Offering 02/14/2004 01:29 PM
Search Engine Lowdown Feb 14 2004 5:12PM GMT

Institutions lukewarm on Google public
offering

Institutions lukewarm on Google public
offering 08/01/2004 08:03 AM
eFinancial News Aug 1 2004 12:09PM GMT

Google May Have Pre-empted Regulators on
Public Offerings

Google May Have Pre-empted Regulators on
Public Offerings 05/04/2004 01:01 AM
New York Times May 4 2004 5:48AM GMT

Google files for initial public offering

Google files for initial public offering 05/01/2004 12:36 AM
EastDay May 1 2004 4:44AM GMT

Google hopes to go public this month:
report

Google hopes to go public this month:
report 07/11/2004 10:47 PM
ABC Online Jul 12 2004 2:32AM GMT

Google Goes Public At The Bottom Of The
Reduced Range

Google Goes Public At The Bottom Of The
Reduced Range 08/18/2004 10:10 PM
Well, it's finally happened. After reduci ng the range for their IPO last night, Google finally got the nod from the SEC, and priced tonight at $85 -- the bottom of the reduced range, suggesting just that interest in the IPO was quite weak. Perhaps that's because it was so complicated that many investors couldn't get in on the process. If that's the case, then many investors who couldn't get in on the IPO may try to buy in tomorrow, pushing the stock up. However, if a lot of original investors are just there to flip, there will be downward pressure as well. The shares will begin trading tomorrow, and expect plenty of commentary on which direction the price actually heads.

Google to make initial public offer

Google to make initial public offer 07/27/2004 06:17 AM
Businessday.co.za - Tue Jul 27, 08:59 am GMT

Google values itself at $36 billion for
public floatation

Google values itself at $36 billion for
public floatation 07/27/2004 12:32 PM
PC Pro Jul 27 2004 5:13PM GMT

Search Engine King Google to Go Public

Search Engine King Google to Go Public 04/30/2004 09:19 AM
AP via Los Angeles Times Apr 30 2004 2:07PM GMT
Grok Description matches for Why Google shouldn't go public
GrokA matches for Why Google shouldn't go public

Why Google shouldn't go public

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