Drop in Google ad clicks hurts stock Report shows fewer people check out promotional links; some analysts say Net giant to prevail after current changes. Michael Liedtke / Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO -- Google Inc. investors reacted Tuesday to the latest evidence indicating fewer people in the United States are clicking on the Internet ads that generate most of the online search leader's profits. The unsettling trend, captured in a closely followed report from Internet research firm comScore Inc., shoved Google shares to an 11-month low. The drop extended a slump that has lowered the Mountain View-based company's market value by 33 percent, or about $70 billion, during the first seven weeks of the year. The tech-laden Nasdaq composite index has declined by 12 percent during the same stretch. The sell-off represents a sobering shift in Wall Street's sentiment toward Google, whose dominance of the lucrative Internet search market had convinced many investors that the company would thrive even in a recession. Advertisement The stock price closed Tuesday at $464.19, down $22.25. The shares sank as low as $446.85 earlier in the session, a level that hadn't been reached since last March. Looking ahead, some investors are worried about Microsoft Corp. becoming a more imposing competitor if it pulls off its proposed takeover of Yahoo Inc. "We don't see a compelling reason to buy the stock right now because we think there's going to be a rocky few months ahead for Google," said Stanford Group analyst Clayton Moran. Other analysts, though, say they still believe Google will deliver stellar earnings and revenue growth this year. They attribute the recent slowdown in Google's growth to deliberate changes that were made to weed out advertising links that don't conform with the company's policies or don't appeal to consumers. Although the revisions may hurt Google in the short term, Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Marianne Wolk reasons the improvements eventually will pay off by displaying more ads that elicit consumers' interest -- an upgrade that probably would spur more spending by Web surfers and marketers alike. "We believe there is some room for optimism on several of these issues so that the outlook may not be as difficult as the market fears," Wolk wrote in a research note. Just a few weeks ago, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt tried to dispel the notion that the feeble U.S. economy had undercut the company's fourth-quarter revenue, which rose 51 percent to $4.8 billion. "I am happy to say we have not seen a negative impact from the rumors of a future recession," Schmidt told analysts Jan. 31. But comScore's statistics indicate Google had an unusually difficult January. The number of Google's paid clicks in January totaled 532 million, down from 533 million at the same time last year according to Reston, Va.-based comScore. It marked the first year-over-year decline in Google's paid clicks during the six months for which comScore has comparable data. In the previous five months, Google's paid clicks had increased by a range of 12 percent to 60 percent. While comScore's data isn't precise, its statistics historically have pointed in the right direction.