Google plans to focus on search, ad technologies

Google Inc. will invest 70 percent of its development budget in Web-search and advertising technology, chief executive Eric Schmidt said yesterday during the company's first analyst day.

Services including Gmail and new products for wireless technology will account for the rest of Google's development spending, Schmidt said. Difficulty finding as many qualified job candidates as Google wants may restrain investment in the business, Google cofounder Sergey Brin said.

''I think we're underinvesting in the business because of the limitations of hiring," Brin said. The event was webcast from the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Google, the most-used search engine, is racing Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft's MSN service to add features to draw users and the advertisers trying to reach them.

Chief financial officer George Reyes opened the meeting by telling analysts the company would stick to its philosophy of not providing investors guidance.

''They continue to be insensitive to the constituency called Wall Street," said Laura Martin, a Pasadena, Calif.-based analyst for Soleil Securities who rates the shares ''hold" and doesn't own them.

Before yesterday's meeting, analysts including Mark Mahaney of American Technology Research Inc. and Steve Weinstein of Pacific Crest Securities Inc. said Google's refusal to give more financial information prevents them from properly valuing the shares.

''There's not enough information," said Weinstein, who rates the shares ''sector perform." Google's rate of ''growth won't be around forever."