, Columnist
Google Rides One-Trick Pony
It may be a one-trick pony, but it's a thoroughbred.
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Eventually, investors' worst fears about Google may come true. Just not yet.
For all the buzz about Google's self-driving cars and other science projects, Google parent company Alphabet Inc. generates about 90 percent of its revenue from the old-fashioned business (with a Google twist) of advertising. And much of those ad dollars emanate directly or indirectly from Google’s absolute lock on its original business in web search. Essentially the world's second-most valuable company is a one-trick pony -- although it is perhaps the best pony ever created. And if the pony ever goes lame, so does Google.