Google Googling an IPO?

Forbes magazine says in its Rich Karlgaard column of 1/6/2003 that "The search site Google is queued up for a first-quarter IPO off of surprisingly virile numbers--some $300 million in 2002 sales, $100 million in profit." (Read it yourself at http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2003/0106/037_print.html ).

I scratched around and couldn't see any other mention of a Google IPO except some handwaving that was done about six months ago, but my gut reaction is "AIIEEEEEE!"

Not because of Google themselves, but because of the whole nature of tech companies and going public. I can't remember a tech company that went public and better served their customers thereby. Of course, there's the rub: I can go to Google.com and google things until the cows come home, but am I truly a customer until I cough up some dinero? And how will Google be able to expand and grow until more people like me become actual customers? And where does more financing (ala an IPO or venture capital) fit into all this?

The Web is really going to change in 2003 as the culture decides if it can support more non-free services, and as more ordinary non-programmers like me play with more site automation and content management ala APIs. It'll be interesting to see what it looks like in December 2003.

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