The Going Rate for Google

GOOG -- Wall Street's symbol for the nation's leading search engine -- closed its first week of public trading above $100. That was after a fairly rocky IPO process and weeks of speculation and commentary on the company's prospects. As Berkman Center fellow Derek Bambauer (pictured right) explained to the Baltimore Sun, Google's lead leaves other companies playing catch-up: Microsoft's upcoming search engine "looks almost exactly like Google's," Bambauer explains. And for a look behind the scenes of Google's IPO process, check out the column, Bidding on Google, from TheStreet.com.