Google - just an obsession or is it for REAL

Like a billion other people I am also thoroughly impressed with Google!

The way they started off,
The way they have expanded their business based on one core competence "Search", one would have never imagined that search can be so powerful!
The way they listed their stock.
They have an "official blog" AFAIK no other major corporation has one.
The way they recruit.
Time management policy (the 20% free time rule).
Their Amazing products! ( I just love my google desktop search) including recently launched Google finance

The list can go on and on...

Due to above reasons and some of my "Gut feeling" I wanted (or do I still want?) to own Google stock.
I started tracking it when it had already run upto 420-430$ after listing at 85$ in their IPO.
Google was having its dream run. After figuring out that it is possible for me to own it, I had
decided to open a brokerage account with scottrade here in the US.

But then one fine day Google began to slide coz of some bad news and has slipped by about 100$ since.
I postponed my decision indefinitely :-) and am watching it closely.

While discussing this with a friend it occurred to me that its better for me to stick to the "known" waters of the Indian stock markets, afterall they are giving some very good returns for the past
few years! But then "in the Indian market can one find a stock like Google?" goes the counter argument.

I think I need to do some more home work before arriving at any decision.

DVD Wars - Netflix and BlockBuster

When I was India, I had seen Netflix ads on the internet but never bothered to figure out what it is.A couple of weeks back I got to know about how Netflix has put DVD rental giant Blockbuster out of business in the issue of knowledge@wharton .

At the same time an "NRI"(well he doesn't claim to be) friend of mine suggested subscription to Netflix so I decided to figure out what this Netflix thing is all about. The first stop was their website. It offers 2 week of free trial and unlimited DVDs + no late fees + free both ways shipping. I was amazed at the business model. It seems that Netflix founder got the idea once he had to pay 40$ as late fees to his DVD rental company(which is an obvious reference to Blockbuster).

I checked out their collection and was happy to see a lot of Bollywood movies there.

I was wondering how Netflix is making money! Then I found this from wikipedia.

It was a smart business model but was unfair to the customers. Even now the same practice of 'throttling' exists but it seems they disclose it in their fine print.

Hence finally decided not to subscribe to Netflix!

Blockbuster also decided to open a "me too" DVD rental service, But I don't know if that also suffers from the same "flaw". They are offering one month free trial.