Google Blog: The Press Release's Insidious Younger Sister
06/13/08 - 05:37 PM EDT
Marek Fuchs
In a turn quite modern and meta, Barron's did investors a disservice by treating a post from a Google senior vice president like an official press release.
Omid Kordestani, Google's (GOOG Quote - Cramer on GOOG - Stock Picks)senior vice president for global sales and business development, recently wrote that his company's deal with Yahoo! (YHOO Quote - Cramer on YHOO - Stock Picks) to share search and advertising, announced yesterday, was the greatest thing ever and would face no serious regulatory trouble. Shortly thereafter, a Barron's technology blog, eager for material and obviously pressed for time, ran the Google blog -- without adding more than a wink of perspective. And though the Google-Yahoo! partnership is nearly too complex for words, it took half an hour for Barron's to publish a counter-post containing strong remarks from a senator with anti-trust concerns. As more companies use blogs in addition to press releases to convey information, investors need to be wary and shrewd. Blogs give companies a means to serve their own interests in a more conversational and engaging style. And that, clearly, is dangerous. After all, you don't have to look around the margins to realize that the prospect of a Google-Yahoo! search-ad hookup deal is complex and, in terms of anticompetitive rules, somewhat fraught. Microsoft (MSFT Quote - Cramer on MSFT - Stock Picks), spurned, bitter and powerful, will try to sabotage the deal. Google has already run into regulatory resistance this year, even without Microsoft whispering in the Justice Department's ear, and this all takes place on the cusp of a political shift that's likely to lead to more anti-competitive rulings.
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