Google Meets Unexpected Foe: Reality

Updated from 8:46 a.m. EST

Google (GOOG Quote) may have pulled the lever hard enough to save the fourth quarter, but if the economy doesn't improve in the months ahead, a new fix is going to be required to keep the growth engine running.

All eyes turn to Google on Thursday when it reports fourth-quarter earnings after the market's close. Though skittish investors have driven the stock down 25% since the beginning of the quarter -- they were trading around $300 Thursday afternoon -- analysts seem confident that the Internet query giant was able to perform better than some observers had feared.

Google is expected to show it was able to offset areas of weakness largely by increasing its number of ad placements and gaining share in the search market in the process. ...