They've been grooming him to be CEO and it's not surpising this all comes in the wake of the Apple problems. It's hard to not think about GOOGLE Maps, Search, Earth, or Adwords, because they've almost become synonymous with the internet itself..in some ways google IS the internet. Whatever AOL, Yahoo or alto Vista couldn't accomplish, google has done.

Google is a rather amazing company to work for too (especially if you don't like codes of dress or hygiene), they pay for their employees lunches, laundry or anything that might take their minds off work. Their CEO's are worth about 15 billion a piece. Frankly, though, I've seen drops in the service they've been providing and I can't help but think it's because of the laxed attitude they have over there and in the tech industry in general. Which is why these events don't surprise me. Google is absolutely still a stock that is somewhat undervalued when considering the long term growth prospect, but I'll continue to sell short along with many other investors.

They provide a free service to us, the user, which is paid for from advertising (slows internet speed) and yep, they still make money off of you and I despite not charging a dime for use of their services, off of all the infinite information we share with the internet each and every day. But really, Google Adwords are the real source of revenue, as google gets paid everytime you click on an ad brought through their website.

Something else to think about ...many companies have succeeded in the past and many companies have failed. It doesn't take much for a trillion dollar company to go to a 100 billion dollar company in a short time. Pieces of Google's data base could be sold or end up in different hands or any number of buyout possibilities; it doesn't take much for the CEO's to take their maney and run, selling off the crucial parts of their company to some huge Chinese or Russian subsidiary.