<story><title>Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24585998</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>ChuckMcM</author><text>Google historically left a lot of money on the table (not using every spot on the page for ads, giving away services with real value, etc.) They decided to stop doing that when they decided they were a &amp;#x27;peer&amp;#x27; of Apple&amp;#x27;s.&lt;p&gt;The shareholders love it because it means Google will finally be pulling in as much cash as they &amp;#x27;can&amp;#x27; vs as much as they needed. Users seem to be somewhat divided on the issue.&lt;p&gt;Sophisticated users and people who are long time observers (like Danny Sullivan) have noted that Google is squeezing the value proposition at the expense of people who can ill afford it. (&amp;#x27;Ranking&amp;#x27; on Google is very much a pay to play kind of thing these days with their page layout). As others have mentioned they have gone all in as an exploiter of their demographic data. And &amp;quot;thinking big&amp;quot; as Larry would always exhort people to do, includes thinking about how much money you could get for the sorts of things that only someone who has Google&amp;#x27;s knowledge of the activity stream can get.&lt;p&gt;Now historically this has often been associated with fading influence and success (the old &amp;#x27;killing the goose that lays the egg&amp;#x27; kind of thing). It will be interesting to see if Google is an example of this or they manage to grow into actually being a peer of Apple.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24585998</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>JonSkeptic</author><text>I think this is interesting because it matches my user experience with Google products in a very inverted way.  Google search has gotten worse and worse lately, forcing me on to other search engines with worse UIs just so that I can get useful results.  Youtube UI gets worse every time they update it.  They cancelled the RSS reader.  The email UI keeps getting worse and featuring more ads.&lt;p&gt;But the stock value hit $1000.  I guess they&amp;#x27;re doing something right, it&amp;#x27;s just not something that affects me in any positive way.&lt;p&gt;[EDIT]:&amp;#x27;affects&amp;#x27;, not &amp;#x27;effects&amp;#x27;</text></comment>