Speculation as to why Google's paid clicks have flattened in January has led to further speculation that a recession has caused consumers to do less search-initiated shopping. Hitwise's Bill Tancer has information that suggests otherwise.
(It occurs to me also that investors have been spoiled by Google's constant growth, as even when Google grows there is disappointment that there wasn't more growth. And flat returns now might as well be declines. Regardless, I suppose market corrections are inevitable. It just sucks if you bought in at $747 per share.)
GOOG prices to fall sharply, and for theorists to propose any number of reasons, ranging from Google's increased vigilance against click-fraud to better organic results to increasing consumer ad-blindness. One thing it's probably not, says Tancer, is an unwilling, unconfident consumer."If a recession is in fact affecting search, we should see a drop in the amount of traffic going from Google to retail sites (our Shopping & Classifieds category)," writes Tancer at the
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