• TechCrunch , Thursday, November 13, 2008 11:31 AM

Web giant Google, whose business is supposedly more resilient to an economic downturn than other Internet advertising stocks, on Wednesday dropped below $300 per share for the first time since 2005. The stock is 44% off its one-year high of $725. And while most analysts think Google at $291 is getting cheaper and cheaper, some, like Silicon Alley Insider's Henry Blodget, think the stock could fall as far as $200 (although please note: little more than a year ago, Blodget was saying Google could go as high as $2,000).

In any event, many securities analysts are revising their Google estimates downwards. Citigroup's Mark Mahaney on Wednesday amended an Oct. 13 note that targeted Google at $590. He now pegs the stock at $450. So what's changed in a month? It certainly wasn't the loss of the Yahoo advertising deal, which TechCrunch says analysts had discounted well before Google walked away last week. Rather, the economic outlook has worsened considerably Mahaney said, emphasizing in his report that we are going into "almost surely the worst economic environment in our collective lifetimes."

It gets worse. In his talks with search marketers, the Citigroup analyst said, "We didn't uncover a single source that thought business trends were going to improve in the foreseeable future," and that "Search marketers almost universally expect this Q4 to be the weakest they have ever experienced." What's most depressing about this report is the fact that Google is supposed to be the best-equipped Internet company to withstand a deep recession. So if "Google is sneezing," says TechCrunch, "everyone else just got the flu."

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