I continue to be amazed at Google's ability to effectively play the underdog card.  Somehow Google is able to look and quack like Mr. Drysdale and yet get treated like Jed Clampett, pre shooting at some food.

I don't know if it's brilliant marketing, Microsoft hate or some combination of the two.  But it seems to be working.

Google has a market cap of $146,000,000,000.00.  That's $146 billion.  An insane figure for a company that basically has no tangible product to sell.  A company whose revenue stream is closer to media than tech.  A company whose stock price is $470 and whose trailing P/E ratio is above 40.

How does Google pull it off?

Maybe it's the collective "I can't believe this is happening to me" effect.

Google went public on August 19, 2004 at $85, via a dutch auction.  I bid 60 something dollars, fully expecting not to get any, but thinking wrongly that anything higher was too much.  Those who bought just 100 shares at $8,500 at the IPO now have stock worth $47,000.  A $25,500 investment is now worth $141,000.  If I had bid higher and gotten a few hundred shares, I probably wouldn't write anything relating to Google but thank you notes.

Somehow, Google is able to play the little 'ol me card while simultaneously nipping at the heels of the Fortune 50.  Here are the U.S. companies with a larger market cap than Google: ExxonMobil, GE, Microsoft, Citigroup, AT&T, Bank of America, P&G, Wal-Mart, Pfizer, American International Group, J&J, JP Morgan Chase, Chevron, Berkshire Hathaway, IBM, Cisco and Altria.  Pretty nice company.

Or maybe Google just knows how to throw a pep rally.

Today Donna Bogatin writes about Google's coach-like fear of the opponent.

Microsoft (DISCLAIMER: I am a Microsoft shareholder) has set its sights on Google's sacred online ad dollar, buying digital marketing (read advertising) company aQuantive, Inc for $6B.  Plus, Microsoft has lots of money and employees.  And Bill Gates.

Google says it's worried.  You can almost hear the clanging of locker room chairs as its employees gather round to listen.

"Win one for the Brin-er!"

Meanwhile, in the other locker room, Donna quotes Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's Gates Lite, talking about how Google puts its pants on one leg at a time:

I don't really know that anyone has proven that a random collection of people doing their own thing actually creates value.

Maybe not, and Google has certainly had a hard time trying to capture lightning in a bottle the second time.  But Microsoft has products to sell, a ton of cash and application dominance (those who say Office is dead don't spend much time in corporate offices).

Yet it still trails Google and Yahoo in the race for online dominance.  All that cash and all that structure still hasn't created decent looking web destinations.  Give Google a computer tariff on virtually every computer sold, and I suspect Google would crush Microsoft and Yahoo.

But the online media game is an away game for Microsoft.

Part of it is that applications and media and online search are different animals.  Dominance in one does not easily translate to the others.  Part of it is scheduling.  While Google and Microsoft dilute their energy by fighting over every possible revenue steam and their bank accounts in the startup rush of '07, will opportunities arise for a dark horse?  Yahoo perhaps?

I don't know.  But I do know that playing the underdog role has served Google well.

Even when the lines say it's not the underdog.