Google IPO

"Web search powerhouse Google has contacted investment banks
about an initial public offering (IPO) that could value the
company in the range of $15 billion and $25 billion, according to
separate reports in the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal."

Does Google actually make any money and if so, how? And if not,
how can it be worth billions? I read somewhere that Hotmail.com
hadn't actually made any money when it was sold to Bill Gates for
$400million.

 

I believe it does make money. Look on the right had of your screen
when you do a search. -- those little boxes are where the money comes
from.
__
http://hexmad.com

 

The "sponsored" links, surely that can't be enough?

 

Think of all the billions of topics that people search from, and how many
millions of people view google in a day. With that coverage, with such a
wide range, they can charge a fair bit for advertising and sponsored
links, even if they don't charge much, there's such a wide market that
they can be raking it in. They at least have to cater for all of the
people using google to keep it publicly free - which in itself is quite a
bit of money.

 

And feck if they're expensive too. IIRC it was summat like £1 per click
through to place an ad there... fortunately you can put monthly limits on
your spend but yay you could spend a lot (well it'd be a lot to me but
presumably not to MegaBucks Inc).
Sometimes if a company that annoys me appears there I click through anyway
just to cost them a quid, then I go back to my regular search results

 

Sponsored links, selling data etc.

Hotmail used to not have many adverts, now it does- they've also introduced
the new extra space options
and other chargeable plans - I would be surprised if Hotmail isn't making
something or has plans to - no business runs anythng for 'fun'.

The revenue from banner advertising is also likely to be surprisingly high
considering the number of Hotmail users.

 

err, have you ever *used* Google? It's dripping with paid-for
highlighed search results.

 

I think you will find that you set both the amount per click through and a
daily limit. The ads appear in order based on amount per click through so
if you said £1 per click you would likley be top of the list. But you
could put a £2 per day limit. A friend who does LPG conversions advertises
through Google at 5p/click £2 per day. He reckons he gets 2 or 3 inquiries
a day through it.

 

Aye, I'm aware that they've "stepped up" their revenue
enhancement scheme at Hotmail. My point is that it sold for
fourhundredmillionfuckingdollars at a time when it had returned
precisely feck all. Now Google /appear/ to be doing something
similar in terms of the co's "value:real worth" ratio.

 

OIC.
Thanks. That's handy to know.
I must have read it wrong when I looked at advertising with them, but that's
me, Mr A Bit Thick

 

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 12:46:01 +0000, entwisi <>
bored us all completely to death with wittery prose along the lines
of:

So to really piss someone off, you click on their links loadsa times
and buy bugger all. Nice.

 

Depends on whether you think information is worth money I suppose.

 

and the search returns seem to favour certain sites too. Shit like kelkoo
crops up at the top of the tree regularly so there is probably a revenue
model at work there too.

 

I used to think that, but it's not true. Try "rude greeting
cards" or "obscene cards". www.obscenecards.co.uk comes third on
a web search and first on a UK search. That's my site and I pay
Google feck all, in fact I've never contacted them or even
submitted the site. Also, try "duab"

 

It's not as dreadful as the Yahoo search used to be (probably still is),
where almost every link returned was some sort of commercial site.

Google lately doesn't seem as good as it has been for the past couple of
years - I'm consistently finding the results returned are less relevant
than they were.

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19

 

Well remember Darcy linked to www.kartoo.com which I rather like.

 

I'll give that a go, ta.

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19

 

<don't reply to your own post,etc>

WooHoo! Once I'd downloaded the toolbar wotsit, the resulting pages are
so much better.

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19

 

The same applies if you search on "MZ Motorcycles" [1], no sponsored
links and the like but search on "Digital Camera" it, as darsy says,
drips with ads.

This is because, I imagine, people make money from selling digital
cameras and are prepared to pay to get more customers. Google deals in
information, the placing and delivery of some types of information has a
value, and is charged for accordingly.

Whereas the market for 'humorous' postcards is a missed opportunity for
global capital.

 

Doesn't seem to work with Mozilla Firebird, or am I being clueless?