Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Google has no clothes: The backlash is beginning. This is the classic American story. Little start-up, bucks the system, sticks it to the man, and succeeds where others have failed. The people rejoice; the critics swoon. Little start-up becomes the industry standard; more rejoicing, more swooning.

Then, not-so-little start-up starts rubbing your nose in it. First, they do this exclusive Gmail thingy which has people jumping up and down, and selling their self-respect (if not their souls) to get one of these email accounts, which is just...an...email...account. As I've said before, it's cool b/c it's exclusive; not because it means anything.

Then, the now-behemoth, decides it's going IPO, at a strike price of over $100. Well, you don't have to be Jim Cramer to hate the idea, but it helps.

I still think the thing will sell, b/c, hey, it's Google. But, I'm giving the company six months before an SEC investigation is launched, and we finally see Google morph into Microsoft.

Moral? Americans love a success story, until it's too successful.

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