Google Discusses Strategy With Analysts

Forbes.com

Google met withWall Street analysts "to review a wide range of topics, including their financial outlook.

Reflecting its iconoclastic culture, Google has banned its management from projecting profits - a policy that limited the disclosures made to the roomful of analysts who make the earnings estimates that influence the company's stock."


"Key points:

Google is likely to require its users to begin providing personal information to use some of its products and services,

Google executives operate under the assumption that 70 percent of the company's resources should be focused on its search engine, even though it accounted for virtually all the company's 2004 revenue of $3.2 billion. Another 20 percent of Google resources is devoted to search products, such as the shopping comparison site Froogle, and the remaining 10 percent is focused on experimental services, such as a three-dimensional mapping program called Keyhole and an online social networking site called Orkut.

Don't be surprised if many of Google's products, including its widely read compilation of recent news stories, remain in the test phase known as "beta" for as long as five years. Page said the "beta" tag is a sign that Google engineers still anticipate making significant improvements to the service.

A hiring spree that has added 2,300 employees in the last two years still hasn't been enough to satisfy Google's expansion plans. Google co-founder Sergey Brin said the company would like to hire employees at a more rapid rate, but has trouble finding enough applicants that meet its high standards.

Page downplayed recent media reports that the company is preparing to branch into new directions by introducing a Web browser, a service for registering Web domains and telephone service over the Internet. "Most of the things we read are a surprise to us," Page told analysts""