RealMoney's Blog Watch

OK, now I'm definitely jealous. When I was at 212 Ventures, we looked at funding a company that does search-engine analytics. We passed on the company, in part, because of my feeling that search was over.

And, in 2001, who could blame me? Excite was going bankrupt. Lycos was disappearing. Yahoo! (YHOO - commentary - Cramer's Take) was on the road to single digits. AltaVista IPO plans were on hiatus. The whole space seemed flooded.

The search-engine analytics company we passed on was bought by Google (GOOG - commentary - Cramer's Take) in 2003. Fast-forward to this month: I see on a list of insider transactions at Google that a former VP at that company has finished selling off $10 million worth of his shares. Oh well. That has to happen. According to a recent Business Week article, Google has minted over 1,000 new millionaires.

Which is why I like checking out the Xooglers blog, in which former Googlers Ron Garrett and Doug Edwards describe their career arcs. It's a fascinating series of posts (and still ongoing) that makes personal the beginnings of the fastest-growing company in history. Here's how the blog starts off:

In November 1999, I left a very secure job with Big Media for a startup technology company that I was pretty sure would be bankrupt within six months. Why would a 41-year-old father of three take a $25,000 pay cut to work with a bunch of guys who still got carded when they ordered beer with their pizza? It's a long story, but one I now have lots of time to tell. This blog is partly about that, but mostly about what happened during the following five years and three months, while I served as Director of Consumer Marketing and Brand Management for Google.

I'm sure he's already wrapped up the book and movie rights but its still a great blog to watch unfold.

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ResearchBuzz takes a look at what Amazon is up to with its new discussion boards and wikis:

I think the additions of wikis and discussions are both very good ideas. However, I will admit to being very surprised. It always seemed to me that Amazon resisted being open to the Web -- they wanted to be more of a self-contained unit. However, with these new features, they'd be open to both consumer-generated content and links from the Web. (Unless they're going to prohibit those in wikis? Seems unlikely.) I never realized how much I'd gotten used to reading corporate blogs when I thought, "I'll have to go check out Amazon's corporate blog and see how they're thinking about this," and then realized I couldn't. ...

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Oh no! Greg Newton has gotten Naked Shorts into the inflation debate, poking fun at the phrase "It's different this time." RM's Barry Ritholtz made the following comment on the blog:

That's the world's most money-losing (or moneymaking) phrase, depending on which side of the trade you find yourself!

Personally, I think that the only way to make money in this market is by identifying those circumstances where the phrase is true.

Where it has been "different this time:"

Google going from $0 in earnings to $1 billion in three years;

The market continuing to rise after 11 interest-rate increases;

A jobless recovery leading to an actual recovery.

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Under The Counter gives an update on Mark Cuban's previously announced plans to do a sports-betting hedge fund.

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James Altucher is a managing partner at Formula Capital, an alternative asset management firm that runs several quantitative-based hedge funds as well as a fund of hedge funds. He is also the author of Trade Like a Hedge Fund and Trade Like Warren Buffett. At the time of publication, neither Altucher nor his fund had a position in any of the securities mentioned in this column, although positions may change at any time. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Altucher appreciates your feedback; click here to send him an email.

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