Meanwhile, Google's gaggle of problems reheats some old concerns about Google's business model to suggest it's facing its "toughest year yet". Essentially, BW is fretting that the search engine runs both its own portal and offers search facilities to third parties. And it worries that Google will somehow need to become less user-friendly if/when it goes public.
These are old concerns - people had been talking about them for a while when I wrote an Online cover story on Google this time last year. In short: it's fair to assume managements don't chuck out profitable business models when they have to start serving shareholders, and that shareholders will realise usability is a key USP of Google. Management at Google, when I met them, gave a fair impression of people who realised their success (a very profitable success) was built on results, for searchers and advertisers. They achieve results today, and are not likely to fiddle with the recipe even if a minority share is sold off.
As for BW's contention that other generalist searches are now "almost as good" - you've got to be kidding, right? Maybe for some subject-specific searches there are alternatives, but Google is still way ahead for the broad sweeps. If you're having trouble, don't forget Jack did a guide to advanced searching on Google a few months back.
Hmm... maybe it's time for some coffee before I write anything else...
