While Google’s 4th quarter profits jumped 17% and sales grew at 51%, the numbers were short of expectations. Google’s stock went down and questions are being raised about whether or not the search giant can weather a potential economic downturn.

Healthy business from advertising made up the cornerstone of Google’s growth, but analyists expected much more. For the year, Google’s revenue was $4.83 billion, up from $3.21 billion the year before.

“I don’t think Google’s ad model is insulated from a recession, but it is probably less vulnerable to cutbacks than other online ad models and definitely than traditional advertising,” said Scott Kessler of Standard & Poor’s.
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Despite the worldwide obsession and massive growth associated with Facebook, MySpace still has far more users and most of them aren’t going anywhere.

On February 5th, they will release their long awaited developer platform, although they’ve yet to pinpoint a date when the widgets can be integrated into the social network. They’ve also yet to share the nuts and blots of the revenue details.
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Dan Frommer at Silicon Alley Insider reported today that Google’s next big idea for print ads is small 2D barcodes that contain a URL that can be scanned by a mobile phone’s camera device. Instead of punching in the sites location on a keypad, the scanning software will pick it up and send you there immediately.

This may seem like an unlikely idea if it didn’t already exist. In Japan, this practice is already common, but there are several hurdles to go over for it to begin yielding results here in the states.

First of all, it’s estimated that between 1% and 10% (more likely 1%) of Americans’ mobile devices have the software necessary to pull this off right now. Deals would need to be made not only with wireless carriers like Verizon and AT&T, but with the device makers like Nokia and Samsung. After that, the revenue would have to be split up to everyone’s liking.
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Last night, stories were circulating that QTrax would offer free ad-supported peer-to-peer downloads of music from all the major labels. The songs would need to be played on the Songbird platform and would contain ads, even on music devices. But QTrax claimed it would offer a whopping 25 million songs for download, compared to 3 million for Amazon and 6 million for iTunes.

QTrax also claims compatiblity with iPod was around the corner.

However, there’s been a bit of controversy since the announcement. First of all, the service is not yet available despite claims it would be. Second, exactly zero of the four major music labels claim they have a deal with QTrax. Third, there is no deal official deal with iPod in the works. Oops.
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With a host of great reviews and with major record labels openly dissing iTunes, Amazon MP3 is poised to take giant steps this year in the online music battle against Steve Jobs and Apple.

Amazon announced today it will go international this year with DRM-free music around the world. Since three of the four major record labels (Universal, Sony BMG, and Warner) have told Apple they will not release DRM free music on iTunes, Amazon has a big advantage in that particular arena.
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There is a rather remarkable post in Robert Scoble’s blog about some time he spent with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg while in Davos. Scoble was so impressed with Zuckerberg that he described the walk they took as “one of the highlights of my life.”

Zuckerberg admitted to Scoble that being on camera makes him “freeze up,” which exhibits a startling amount of candor for a CEO of one of the world’s hottest companies.

But Scoble seemed more impressed with Zuckerberg’s intelligence and skill dealing with the top-drawer brass he dealt with at the World Economic Forum, saying, “I wish I had his poise and skills and I’m almost twice his age.” Zuckerberg seems to possess knowledge about almost every technical detail about his social networking site, which is the kind of intimacy we have come to expect from Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Obviously, it’s good company to be in.
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Meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, some of media’s biggest players got together to discuss “The Future of Mobile Technology.” While mobile ad startups continue to be bombarded by investment, the future of mobile advertising is very much up in the air.

First of all, thanks to Michael Arrington of TechCrunch for his excellent appraisal of the meeting.

Fortune Magazine Senior editor David Kirkpatrick moderated the discussion, and quoted some rather dispiriting projections about mobile advertising. According to Forrester, U.S. mobile ad revenue is expected to be below $1 billion as late as 2012. Currently, only 3% of Internet advertisers are putting ads on mobile devices.
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The fact that Apple’s new MacBook Air contains no optical drive or ethernet port is a sign that the fully wireless age is approaching rather quickly, and with the auction of 700Mhz spectrum starting today, such an era is increasingly coming into view.

Google, along with Verizon, AT&T, Echostar, and Cablevision, has let their intentions to get in on the spectrum being abandoned by television in favor of digital signals. The spectrum is powerful. It can travel long distances with little power, it goes through thick walls, and will be a boon to underserved rural areas.

The FCC is auctioning off five “blocks” of spectrum with a mimium total price of $10 billion. The last such spectrum auction fetched total bids of $13.7 billion, and many expect this auction to exceed that number.
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CBS has launched an intriguing new music service, Last.fm. On the site, users will have access to over 3.5 million songs from four major labels (EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner) and bunch of independent ones, and users will be able to listen to whatever songs they want while they are shown an ad during the song.

The catch? Users are only allowed to listen to each song a maximum of three times. However, this is only the beta version of the service, and in the future, unlimited listens may be available with a subscription.
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Perhaps we’re all getting tired of hearing how Facebook is the next Google. Day after day we are bombarded with statistics and information regarding Facebook’s rise to its inevitable position as everybody’s startpage, replacing Google as the world’s portal to the internet.

Now, though, their position appears very nearly secure as they have copied the Google method and are looking for their own on-site executive chef.

After the 60 Minutes interview with Mark Zuckerberg, we all saw Facebook HQ as a freewheeling open office where a guy rode around on a unicycle and the young CEO spent his days banging out code and retiring to his one-bedroom apartment to sleep on the floor. Undoubtedly, this is the very picture of an upstart organization poised to crash the gates.
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