What Is the Stock Symbol for Google?
Google Inc. is a high-tech firm, specializing in online searches, advertising and software solutions. Founded in 1998 by two Stanford University students, Google has become the poster child for the post-dot.com crash of 2000-01. Its IPO in 2004 captivated not only the tech industry, but also the entire financial world as a whole. Though it was far from the largest IPO, it was one of the most celebrated, along with the most closely watched. Google trades on the NASDAQ under the stock symbol GOOG.
History
Google's history (if it could be called that) dates back a mere six years before the IPO. Originally a grad-school research project, it quickly became a viable commercial entity. Angel investors contributed $1.1 million, and Google quickly grew to become not only a hot tech firm, but also a cultural reference point, as it became a verb (as in "I Googled you yesterday!"). Its stock opened at $85 on Aug. 19, 2004, and closed that day at $100.33. By late October of that year, the stock surpassed the $700/share threshold. Many Google employees became instant multimillionaires after the IPO.
Significance
Google is best known for its search engine, which leads No. 2 Yahoo by a margin of more than 2:1. However, Google's core competency (and biggest moneymaker) is its advertising business. Google is able to tailor its advertisements to a user's location and Web history, along with other identifying information. Google also provides an analytics service, something that delivers detailed information about clicks and visitors to Websites. It allows marketers to drill down into where visitors to a site come from, including search engines, advertisements or from email marketing.
Identification
Google has a simple, yet distinct logo. On holidays, the logo modifies to a motif of what is being celebrated. One of the biggest deals that Google undertook was the purchase of youtube.com, which was considered risky, due to the copyright litigation that YouTube was fighting at the time. Google has created a successful email service, Gmail, and has put its imprint on phones; namely the G1, developed for T-Mobile's network.
Warning
Google has expanded far beyond its original mission. However, as it matures, it will lose its "cutting-edge" cred, and become just another successful tech company, much in the same vein as Apple and Microsoft. Although one look at its share prices and growth makes it look like a no-lose proposition, the same maxim applies to Google as it does to every other stock--that past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Expert Insight
With its traction in the online world, a real-world identifiable name and a ton of cash in the bank, it's fairly safe to assume that Google will continue to help shape the future of both the online and offline worlds. However, anybody who didn't get in on the ground floor of Google's IPO was a bit late to the party, as the stock skyrocketed the first day on the market. But the smart money says that the best is yet to come with Google.
