REALITY CHECK FOR THE GOOGLE BOYS.

Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page pride themselves on flouting convention. They bypassed investment bankers when they first issued shares in August, 2004. Just days before the stock's debut, they drew regulators' ire by giving an interview to Playboy, which violated so-called quiet rules. And they made it a formal company policy not to issue financial targets, which almost every public company does quarterly. Investors didn't seem to care: The stock soared to $471 on Jan. 11 from $85 at the initial public offering.

Now the Google boys may have to swallow their pride and start striking a more cooperative stance with Wall Street. The company lost $10.8 billion in market capitalization in just 20 minutes on the morning of Feb. 28, after Google Inc. Finance Chief George Reyes said at an investor conference that the company's growth rates were slowing. The stock rebounded slightly later in the day but still closed down 7%, and almost 25% off the Jan. 11 high. "When the stock is going up, people are less inclined to ask questions," says Scott Kessler, an equity analyst at Standard & Poor's.

They're not afraid to ask questions now. "You have to wonder, is the first quarter going to be softer than people are expecting, and are they trying to manage those expectations?" says Martin Pyykkonen of San Francisco investment bank Hoefer & Arnett. Although Google issued a press release later on Feb. 28 that clarified Reyes' remarks, it gave no financial projections. Investors weren't satisfied; the following day the stock gained back less than a percent.