Google will miss expected earnings numbers tomorrow (IMO). There are two recent “shoot your own foot” actions from Google that may affect their short term performance. Overall, I agree with the changes, but I wouldn’t be swinging into earnings tomorrow.

(1) Google changed the “hit area” of their AdSense ads. Before the entire ad area was clickable. Now just the heading and url are.

There are mixed reports on whether or not this is affecting overall click through rates (CTR) and earnings. On InvestorGeeks, our CTR went from 2-2.25% in September and October to 1.25-1.5% in December and January. Our overall earnings are down 40%.

Most of Google’s revenue comes from their own search page which likely had smaller drops (if at all). But if other sites have had slowdowns like we have, this would eat into Googles earnings growth.

In the long run I think this is a good move, as it will cut down on fraud… eventually leading to more advertisers and higher ad rates. In the shot term, however, folks are taking a hit.

(read on for reason #2)

I just wanted to do a nice recap of the donations we made on behalf of InvestorGeeks in 2007. All totaled, we gave a tad over $2000 in 2007. We’re looking to nearly double that in 2008… as long as our traffic and advertising relationships hold up.
2007 InvestorGeeks Donations
- $400 to The Arthritis Foundation for Steve’s Race
- $300 to The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation for my cousin Candice’s Run for the Cure

(these below were squeezed in at the end of the year and previously unannounced on the blog here)
- $300 …

Got this email from a fan. And since none of the current writers are Canadian, I thought I’d throw this out there.

BTW, RSP stands for “Registered Retirement Savings Plan” and seems to be a Canadian 401k. I’m sure a lot of the standard retirement plan advice would apply, but we’re looking for a Canadian perspective.
Hey InvestorGeeks
My name’s Gavin Adamson. I write occasionally for the Globe and Mail
and this time I’m writing a piece about what part online - DIY
investing plays in RSP building.
Not sure if any of you guys have …

Here is an email exchange I had with my step father. Note: my mother works as a Bed Bath and Beyond store manager.

Original email back in November:

BBBY is down to 29.5 your thoughts?
-Kevin (11/26/2007)

And then my response:

So Kim and I are in the process of buying a house. We’re going through a lot and learning tons of stuff that would be great to share with all of you.

Perhaps more importantly, there are a bunch of folks smarter than me who occasionally read this. So I’m hoping we can get some good advice here and there.

But to start I’ll just try to give a little background in this post before I get into some more specific topics later. For those who don’t know, I do web development with my wife Kim. We work for our own company Stranger Studios and work from home (our apartment right now). This is all going very well. Work is good. Making your own hours is great. Spending every minute of every day with the woman I love is truly incredible. I doubt most couples could do it, but Kim and I pull it off with style.

Life is good. Ok.

Because we work from home, we could live anywhere. And we’ve been conscious of this. We’ve considered a number of places to settle down for the next 5 years or so: Arizona, New Mexico, Mexico Proper, San Francisco, Napa, Oregon, Idaho. One fun game we had was to open up Google Maps and just zoom into a random spot on the map. We’d look for lakes, rivers, small towns, or anything else that looked interesting to live near.

I don’t usually post links from link requests emailed to me, but I got one from Ken Fisher’s team… and I think Ken Fisher is pretty cool. I like his book. He writes for Forbes, which I should start getting since Business 2.0 went under. He’s pretty smart and has been right about the market more often than not. I like the way he thinks.
Check out my review of The Only Three Questions That Count.
And then checkout Mr. Fisher’s website to find more stuff by him. Learn about Kenneth Fisher …

Here’s my latest post about AMD.
Here’s an excerpt from a Frobes article:

“Intel’s latest desktop processors have faster clocks speeds and use
smaller transistors–45 nanometers as opposed to 65 nanometers–that
allow them to do more work with less power, _all else being equal_.
“We think that Intel is consolidating its performance lead in
desktops,” Wachovia analyst David Wong wrote in a note to investors
Monday.”
!! “All else being equalt.” All else is not equal. Sure, Intel can
brute force faster speeds with the working capital that they have, but
AMD is going to finesse it’s way …

This two-part series by Bryant Urstadt is some of the best investing writing I’ve ever read. Bryant gives a run down of exactly what-the-f happened this Summer 2007. After reading these two pieces, "it all makes sense, man".
Part 1: The Blow Up
Teaser:
On Wednesday, August 8, not long after the markets closed, 200 of the smartest people on Wall Street gathered in a conference room at Four World Financial Center, the 34-story headquarters of ­Merrill Lynch. August is usually a slow month, but the rows of chairs were full, and highly …

1. We have a new author! His name is Alex, and he’s already published a great article on alternative energy that is getting some attention in the comments. View the great discussion over there.
2. People are signing up for the mailing list. Good. I still have no idea what we’ll do with it. In the meantime, you can win a chance to get some free books and know that we won’t be giving away your email address or selling it to spammers, etc. Please sign up. I want to keep …

You may notice a new widget in the right sidebar. There’s a little form for you to join our mailing list. Do it now, and then I’ll tell you why.
What do we mail out over our mailing list? Nothing yet. We’re still figuring it out, but it will likely have to do with updates on what’s going on with the blog and stuff we’re giving away. One thing you can be sure of is that we will never give, sell, or rent your email address to someone else. We hate …