Google Shareholders Praise Management (AP)

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Google Inc. shareholders mostly praised management during the online search engine leader's annual meeting Thursday, hailing a company that has created $55 billion in investor wealth during the past year.

The only serious criticism during the 75-minute meeting attended by about 200 shareholders focused on Google's recent decision to censor some of its search results in China to adhere to the country's restrictions on free speech.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin sparred briefly with the critic, Tony Cruz of Amnesty International USA. Brin pointed out that rival search engine Yahoo had been cooperating with China far longer and has even gone so far as turn over information from e-mail accounts that have helped land dissidents in jail.

Reiterating previous management comments on the issue, Brin said Google believes its presence in China ultimately will force the government to become less repressive.

He noted that Google's January launch of a search engine under a Chinese domain name already has helped trigger Congressional hearings and drawn widespread media attention to the issue.

Shareholders otherwise were mostly upbeat.

The mood reflected the performance of Google's stock, which has climbed by 70 percent during the past year as Google widened its leadership in Internet search — gains that has put it on a pace to generate about $10 billion in revenue just eight years after its inception in a Silicon Valley garage.

Google's shares dropped $15.98, or 4 percent, to close Thursday at $387 on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

That kind of volatility bothers Stephen Moress, who traveled from Los Angeles to attend Thursday's meeting. "It's been a real roller coaster and a little scary," said Moress, who owns 1,000 Google shares. "They need to come up with a better plan to communicate with the press and put a better spin on things."

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/