Friday, December 31, 2010

Google Extends Free Calling in Gmail Thru 2011 (Video) *Use voice & video chat in Gmail*

GOOG!



Google Voice on GMail


“Wouldn’t it be nice if you could call people directly on their phones?”
"You can call any phone right now from Gmail."

Google announced in December that free calling in Gmail will be extended through 2011: "When we launched calling in Gmail back in August, we wanted it to be easy and affordable, so we made calls to the U.S. and Canada free for the rest of 2010. In the spirit of holiday giving and to help people keep in touch in the new year, we’re extending free calling for all of 2011. In case you haven’t tried it yet, dialing a phone number works just like a regular phone. Look for “Call phone” at the top of your Gmail chat list and dial a number or enter a contact’s name." I use this Gmail feature frequently, including on WiFi, as I live in a rural area with an iffy cell signal. I have never had any problems with Gmail voice and it is exceptionally clear through broadband cable.


Make Phone Calls From Google Gmail (Video) *Voice & video chat added*
(From previous post August 31, 2010)



Google has added voice to GMail and it is similar to Skype. Google is promoting as: "Free calls to the U.S. and Canada in 2010. Insanely low rates for international calls." I tried a call and it was clear and easy to use.
 



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Saturday, December 25, 2010

Google Rises Above $600 (Charts) *High expectations for Q4* GOOG

GOOG



Samsung launched the Nexus S smartphone with Google Android "Gingerbread" OS on December 6


Google Overview

GOOG Google rose above the heretofore elusive $600 this past week to close at $604.23 on Thursday, December 23, 2010. Google was up +2.27% for the week, is up +8.73% for December, and down -2.54% for the year. GOOG is up a market-beating +107.72% since the March 9, 2009 market bottom. This equates to a gain of +$13.43 for the week, up +$48.52 for December, down -$15.75 for the year, and up an incredible +$313.34 since the March 9, 2009 market bottom. GOOG is down -3.60% and -$22.54 from the 2010 YTD closing high of $626.77 on November 8. After struggling in the Bear Abyss below $500, GOOG has been above $500 for 68 consecutive trading days (since September 20), was above $600 for 21 consecutive trading days (from October 15 to November 12), below $600 for 25 consecutive trading days (from November 15 to December 20), and now has been back above $600 for the last 3 trading days (since December 21). GOOG finished November down -9.45%, after impressive gains in October +16.72% and September +16.84%.


S&P 500 By comparison, the overall market, the S&P 500, was up +1.03% for the week, is up +6.46% for December, is up +12.70% for the year, and is up +85.77% since the March 9, 2009 market bottom. SPX closed at a YTD and multi-year closing high of 1258.84 on Wednesday, December 22, 2010, the highest close since the September 8, 2008 close of 1267.79. GOOG has been outperforming the market since the March 9, 2009 market bottom, underperforming for 2010, outperformed in September and October, is outperforming in December, but lagged the market in November. A review of the S&P 500 is here [S&P 500 at Lofty Heights (Charts) *Climbing the wall of worry*].

Google News and Fundamentals Google has been in the news in December as a result of the Google Chrome Event on December 7. In addition, Google announced the launch of the Samsung Nexus S Android (Gingerbread OS) smartphone and the opening of the eBooks Store. At the Google Chrome Event, the Chrome Web Store was launched, the Chrome Notebook was unveiled, which is planned to be consumer-ready by mid-2011 with Acer and Samsung as the first manufacturers, and Google announced the Chrome browser user base had increased +300% in 2010 with a conservative count of 120+ million active users. More innovation is coming for the Chrome browser, based on speed via Chrome Instant. Finally, Andrew Rubin tweeted on December 9 that 300,000 Android phones are being activated daily, which is a blowout number. This was after the negative news that the EU had launched an anti-trust investigation. Google reported excellent Q3 earnings which are reviewed and analyzed on this blog. Q4 2010 is expected to be financially strong. Current Google financial data, charts, and review is at the Google Financial Performance page, updated for the latest Q3 financial results reported on October 14. A review and analysis of the most recent Q3 earnings call is at the Google Earnings Conference Call page. Our valuation and target price of GOOG stock is posted at the Google Stock Valuation page. Revenues from outside of the United States were 52% of total revenues in the third quarter of 2010.

Economic and Market News Information about the USA and world economies is posted at Boom Doom Economy and Financial Controls.


Google Rises Above $600

Google Daily Chart Below is the GOOG daily chart since October 14, when Google reported calendar Q3 earnings after market close and gapped up the next day. This is to illustrate the recent applicable price interactions with the current close, resistance, and support. A monthly chart is included at the bottom of this page for a broader perspective.

Noteworthy Closing Prices on Daily Chart Below
Current Close: $604.23
2010 YTD High, November 8: $626.77
2010 YTD Low, July 6: $436.07
YE December 31, 2009: $619.98

* The 200 day simple moving average and the uptrend line are not shown on the daily chart. The very highest yellow line is the downtrend line discussed below *




Intermediate-Term Trend The intermediate-term signal, the comparison of the 25 day and 50 day simple moving averages, generated a sell signal on Tuesday, December 14, after being in buy mode since September 30. Therefore, GOOG is in an intermediate-term bear market. That is, the 25d sma is now less than the 50d sma. However, the relationship between these two moving averages is a lagging indicator. The 25d sma is now ascending (not shown on the daily chart above) and the 50d sma continues ascending.

Resistance GOOG has pulled back from the 2010 YTD closing high of 626.77 on November 8 so there are multiple levels of resistance above. Current resistance is now the Wednesday, December 22 closing peak of 605.49 (highest yellow horizontal line on the daily chart above). Next resistance would be the 607 area, related to the October 19 and 20 closes of 607.83 and 607.98, respectively.


Support Current support would hopefully be the benchmark price of 600.00 (middle yellow horizontal line on the daily chart above) and the 50 day simple moving average of 598.91. However, in dropping below 600 and rising above, there has been not been significant price interactions at this level. Significant support is the 595 area (lowest yellow horizontal line on the daily chart above), which GOOG has had much price interaction with. Further below more support, including the 20 day simple moving average of 587.31.

Moving Averages GOOG has now regained the 20, 25, and 50 day simple moving averages. The 20d and 25d sma's are now ascending, although both continue below the 50d. The 50d is ascending, regained the 100d sma on September 27, and regained the 200d sma on October 28. The 100d is ascending and regained the 200d sma on November 24. The 200d has leveled off and begun slightly ascending.

Uptrend Line (Not shown on the daily chart) The yellow uptrend line, a rate of price ascent, is from the November 24, 2008 closing low of 257.44 up through the July 6, 2010 YTD closing low of 436.07. GOOG broke down through this trendline on August 30 and 31, but bounced above on September 1 and has remained well above since.

Downtrend Line The yellow downtrend line, a rate of price descent, is from approximately the November 6, 2007 all-time closing high of 741.79 down through the November 8, 2010 high of 626.77, the peak YTD closing high so far. GOOG has remained below since.

Relative Strength Index (RSI) The RSI 14 day = 84.86 is overbought, descending, and below the recent peak of 89.05. The recent low was 17.01 on August 24 and the unbelievable low of 4.79 on July 6. A 2010 YTD high, and multi-year high, of 94.12 was reached on September 27. The RSI 28 day = 50.29 is reasonable and ascending. The 2010 and multi-year high was 87.87 on October 18. The 2010 lows have been in the mid-20s. The RSIs had been pulled downwards by the sell off on the EU investigation news. However, the recent rally pulled the RSI 14d upwards to overbought while the RSI 28d has risen above oversold status.

MACD (12,26,9) The MACD = +2.15 became positive on December 10, after being negative for 27 consecutive trading days, and is slightly ascending. The 2010 and multi-year high was +7.27 on October 19. The 2010 and multi-year low was -8.30 on November 17.

Volume GOOG traded a very low 1.1M on Thursday, December 23, which is the lowest since December 24, 2009 (857.4K), due to Christmas. The 20 day simple moving average of approximately 2.4M is descending. The high has been an incredible 14.8M shares on October 15, 2010 (day after Q3 earnings release), a YTD and multi-year high. By comparison, the 50 day sma is descending and approximately 2.98M. Buyer conviction and enthusiasm after the earnings report waned and as GOOG approached the 2010 YTD closing high of 626.75.

Long-Term Trend The 10 month exponential moving average of 539.14 is a long-term indicator and shown on the monthly chart below. That is the line in the sand, so to speak, for the long-term signal of a bull or bear market. GOOG rallied above this indicator in September and has stayed above in October, November, and into December. GOOG had been mostly below this long term bear signal from April to August in 2010.

Conclusion On October 14, Google reported excellent Q3 earnings which are reviewed on the Google Financial Performance page  A review and analysis of the most recent Q3 earnings call is at the Google Earnings Conference Call page. The Great Google is still an extraordinary cash flow machine! GOOG had rallied with the market and actually outperformed the market during September and October - even before the excellent Q3 earnings announcement. Google has set the bar high for the future and EPS growth. The intermediate-term trend has turned bearish on December 14 but the the long-term trend is bullish. The line in the sand is $600, which GOOG rallied above this past week. Will buyer confidence keep GOOG above $600? We think so. More about Google the value of GOOG stock on the Google Stock Valuation page.


Google Monthly Chart
Up +135% and +$347 from November 28, 2008 cyclical closing low of $257.44!

Below is the monthly GOOG chart since the November 2008 cyclical low. The overall analysis and commentary is the same as for the daily chart above. The current price, the yellow horizontal lines, and the yellow uptrend and downtrend lines are the same, and as described, on the daily chart discussion above. The white moving average line is the 10 month exponential moving average, which is the long-term bull or bear market signal. GOOG rallied above 10m ema in September 2010 and the current close continues above, indicating a long term bull market.



Disclosure
We are long GOOG.


About Google

Google market capitalization is now 5th largest in the USA at $193.22B, behind #1 Exxon $36912B and #2 Apple $296.84B. Google is the 3rd largest technology company in the USA by market capitalization behind Apple and Microsoft. Just in the past couple of months, Google was 13th largest overall company and 4th largest technology company by market capitalization, until the spectacular rally on excellent Q3 earnings. Current Google financial data is at the Google Financial Performance page. A review and analysis of the most recent Q3 earnings call is at the Google Earnings Conference Call page. More about Google the value of GOOG stock on the Google Stock Valuation page. Headcount: On a worldwide basis, Google employed 23,331 full-time employees as of September 30, 2010, up from 21,805 full-time employees as of June 30, 2010.

Google describes itself in press releases as, "Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia."

Google's Mission Statement: "Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. The first step toward fulfilling that mission came when our founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, working out of a Stanford University dorm room, developed a new approach to online search that quickly spread to information seekers around the globe. Google is now widely recognized as the world's largest search engine -- a free service whose utility and ease of use have made it one of the world's best-known brands almost entirely through word of mouth from satisfied users."


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