Google IPO, the drawbacks

We've talked before about the possible changes that a publicly traded Google will undergo. One change is that investors will demand profitability. Since Google is not publicly traded at this time, most of this type of information is currently secret.

Google enjoys the reputation of being a "clean" search engine. That is, the search is paramount and free of any commercial skewing. The Washington Post has an interesting take on this:

"They worry, too, that a public Google will ultimately buckle under to investor pressure for ever-higher profit margins and sacrifice the very thing that has made it so popular: the purity of its search. The analysts point to other search companies that went public, such as Yahoo Inc., and in the process diluted their focus on search as they ventured increasingly into the realm of job listings, horoscopes, chat rooms and personal ads."

Chat rooms and horoscopes? Let's hope not.