Dueling Fools: Google

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz
January 9, 2008 | Comments (0)

Recs

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Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) celebrated another great year in 2007. Despite the challenges of contested acquisitions, a distant second-place finish in China to Baidu.com (Nasdaq: BIDU), and occasional divergences from its "do no evil" mantra, Google once more treated its investors to market-thumping returns. But how will the search giant fare in 2008 -- and beyond?

Google has done a masterful job of keeping its biggest competitors, Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), away. But what if the future of scouring the Web belongs to hungrier upstarts like Digg, Wikipedia, or IAC/InterActiveCorp's (Nasdaq: IACI) Ask.com? What if hardware makers like Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) or Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) play a bigger part in directing the online experience?

Is Google susceptible? Not all Fools agree.

Anders Bylund is our bull this week, while I'm stepping in as the bearish devil's advocate. Who's right? Read on and decide for yourself.

Duel on!

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Baidu.com is a Rule Breakers recommendation. Yahoo! is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor selection. Microsoft is an Inside Value pick. If you want some conviction behind your next great stock pick, check out either newsletter free for 30 days.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is a fan of Google. It would be his home page if Fool.com weren't tattooed on his forehead. He does not own shares in any of the stocks mentioned in this article. Rick is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has an easy-to-find disclosure policy.

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Related Tickers

11/6/2009 4:00 PM
MSFT $28.52 Up +0.05 +0.18%
Microsoft Corp CAPS Rating: ***
BIDU $409.74 Up +13.51 +3.41%
Baidu.com, Inc. (A… CAPS Rating: **
YHOO $15.94 Up +0.04 +0.25%
Yahoo!, Inc. CAPS Rating: **
HPQ $49.16 Up +0.31 +0.63%
Hewlett-Packard Co… CAPS Rating: ***
AAPL $194.34 Up +0.31 +0.16%
Apple, Inc. CAPS Rating: ***
GOOG $551.10 Up +2.45 +0.45%
Google, Inc. CAPS Rating: ***
IACI $19.27 Up +0.13 +0.68%
IAC/InterActiveCor… CAPS Rating: ***

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