Google goes "Splat"
Today may officially mark the end of the second great dot com boom.
Google has had years to diversify out of the paid advertising business, unfortunately for them they have failed to do anything with the opportunity. Today ComScore revealed that the bottom has dropped out of the pay per click advertising business. That would happen to be Google's cash cow.
Google's stock proceeded to take a $22 cliff dive.
Consumers are out of money. The home equity piggy bank has been completely tapped (credit limit, meet falling home equities). Consumer confidence is the lowest in 16 years. They are not spending money online, which means that online retailers are slicing and dicing their advertising budgets.
Until the economy recovers, which will most likely be several years, nobody with half a brain is going to fund a digital business based on an advertising revenue model. This is going to put a big hurt on the current crop of dot coms. Twitter, Digg, and crew are probably crying in their beers tonight.
