• Forbes, Friday, July 6, 2007 12 PM

As Google shares hit yet another all-time high, Oxford Analytica, a strategic-marketing firm, warns the Web giant may lose the most important source of its momentum: trust.

It's not just about retaining users' trust in Google's ability to handle sensitive personal information; it's also about maintaining that image, which Oxford says might be slipping. Success on Google's scale brings greater scrutiny from the media, the public and the government. The company has received poor marks from privacy groups for its data retention policies. It's denied U.S. government requests for its search data, and Google has yet to respond to a European Union inquiry into its retention policies. The proposed acquisition of DoubleClick has put Google under even more scrutiny. Two years ago, Google opened offices in D.C. A year later, the company now has lobbyists in the U.S. and 10 EU capitals.

Technical innovation may have been a main driver of the company's growth, but so is popularity. Google needs to sustain the latter. If the court of public opinion shifts, so, too, could Google's fortunes.

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