Is the once mighty Google going limp? Are the growth prospects of Google at risk? Are people clicking less on Google ads? These are the questions that haunt the investors who have shares in Google.

Google shares had dropped to an all time low and the report by comScore, the research firm, says that the reason is that there were less number of people clicking on Google ads this year in comparison to last year.

Analysts feel that the comScore report is a sign that Google, which is not in the habit of forecasting its future performance, is as vulnerable to the United States economic situation as the others, and certainly not impervious to the slowdown. According to one of them, “There are pretty strong signals now that the economic slowdown is having impact on consumers’ behavior online and therefore having a negative impact on Google.”

Wall Street analysts say that apart from the economy pulling it down, Google may be facing other issues such as perhaps getting too big to be able to gain any more market share, spending more than it can afford to, as well as facing major competition from the possible merger of the two chief rivals, Yahoo and Microsoft.

As of now, Google is still a highly profitable company that is out-performing all its major competitors. Google’s share in the United States online advertising market increased from 19% in 2005 to 28% in 2007.

Majority of Google’s earnings come from text ads, for which it gets paid only when users click on these ads. It is also pointed out that the unexpected decrease in the paid clicks reported by comScore could very well be the result of a conscious effort on the part of Google to ensure long-term benefit. (more…)