Google is revered by many web users as simply the best search engine around, with the verb "to google" even entering common usage. Its success has fuelled speculation about a public offering of its shares for almost as long as it has been around.

The view of Google's most loyal and devoted fans, including bloggers and web users generally, is that an IPO could undermine the enormous amount of goodwill the search engine has generated among its users since its inception in a Californian garage five years ago.

Some web commentators are concerned that this reverence might drive the price of its shares through the roof when the offering takes place next year.

As Paul Kedrosky said in Canada's National Post last week: "The [offering] … threatens to become a financial and media black hole, sucking all common sense out of the markets as it approaches."

The reason for such optimism among potential investors is Google's dominance in the search engine market and its healthy balance sheet, which has led many to believe the company could be valued as high as $16 billion (£8.9bn).

The vast sums have led many to suggest Google should sell its stock via an online auction, as reported in The Financial Times last week.

The view on the web is polarised over whether an auction is a good idea. Some see it as a good way to spread the wealth among individual investors. A regular IPO would see shares bought up in bulk by large institutional investors such as mutual funds.

Others are concerned that an auction bidding process would drive up the share price, unlike a more conventional IPO in which the price of the shares is fixed at the start. This could lead to many investors buying at a high price, with the likelihood that the share price would then fall to more realistic levels once the clamour has died down.

Some fail to see why the company needs to raise more money with an IPO when it is already so profitable. Again, the reverence that the company is held in might explain this view. Google may be dominant, but it is far from unassailable, and the money, if well spent, could help it to remain among the market leaders.

Motley Fool, the online investment centre, has said that Google will need all the money it can get to fight the other big players moving into the search engine market, which include Microsoft, Yahoo!, which recently purchased Overture and Inktomi, and Amazon, which is developing its own search engine business.

The possible IPO is being debated on weblogs such as Slashdot.org. The idea is viewed as broadly a good thing for the owners. It could also be good for the company, providing Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders, have a coherent idea of what they will do with the money raised.

However, other web users voice concern that the requirement to satisfy the short-term interests of shareholders could inhibit the company's future growth prospects and its impressive research and development record. In the last year alone, the search engine has launched Google News and Froogle, its online shopping directory.

Speculation abounds on what the company would do with the money. The TNL.net weblog suggests Google is almost certain to use the money to expand and might use it for acquisitions to help it keep ahead of competitors such as Microsoft.

While it reports that a merger with Yahoo! might be unlikely, TNL.net says Google might be persuaded to buy Looksmart, Findwhat.com or Ask Jeeves to help boost its market share.

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