Analyst Goes Goo-Goo for Google

And then there was the day The Business Press Maven had officially seen it all.

We've born sad witness before to how analysts have made deliberately inconsistent statements about prominent companies in order to set themselves up for being right no matter which way circumstances blow. And we've seen the business media, who need analyst sources or they'd be forced to think for themselves, take these analysts at their word.

But I'm not sure we've ever seen the likes of this, at least with this visible a company.

A Citigroup analyst named Mark Mahaney was entirely bullish on Google(GOOG Quote) as recently as a month ago. Five weeks ago, he has a price target of $590. Way, way, back then, thirty-something days ago, he said the company was the market leader in search, the most "dynamic" portion of Internet advertising. ...