Google is again the darling of Wall Street

By Jessica Guynn Los Angeles Times

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Even though its ubiquitous Internet search engine practically mints money, Google Inc. was widely seen as a company whose best days were behind it.

It was written off as the next Microsoft Corp. — a staid high-tech giant in the shadows of Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. that had lost its sense of urgency and innovative edge.

But that sentiment has shifted dramatically over the last year, and when Google swings open the doors to its annual conference for software developers Wednesday, it won't just be showcasing its latest products. It will be showing off the newest version of Google.

"A year ago, everyone thought Google was just going to collect its pension checks" from search advertising, said Steven Levy, author of the book "In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives." "Now it's the hot company again."

One of the main reasons Google is the company that everyone is talking about: big ideas.

Google has long been known for making long-term bets on audacious ideas, some of which evolve into indispensable parts of our everyday lives: photographing every street on Earth to create a digital replica of the planet, say, or providing instant translations of websites in any language.

Google even has a small group of researchers coming up with a simulation of the human brain, part of its effort to bore so deeply into people's habits and lives that it can understand what they want — sometimes before they themselves know it.

"There's not much competition" when it comes to exploring technological frontiers, Page said in Google's first-quarter earnings call, "because no one else is crazy enough to try."

These attention-getting projects have reinvigorated Google's image in Silicon Valley and beyond. The company has a starring role in a new Vince Vaughn-Owen Wilson movie coming out June 7, "The Internship," which showcases Google products and casts Google as "the greatest place to work in America."

And it has again become the darling of Wall Street. Analysts still fret that searches on desktop computers, Google's most lucrative way to sell ads, will cool off before it can come up with its next big moneymaker. But they say Page has impressed investors by running this $50 billion business of nearly 54,000 workers with hardheaded discipline.

Page has sharpened the company's focus on a handful of product areas to deliver, in his words, "one consistent, beautiful and simple Google experience," something Google executives say will be on display at its developers' conference this week.