Google May Be Close To Developing iTunes Competitor

Peter Kang, of Forbes.com writes here on 01.26.06, 1:41 PM ET, two excerpts :

Bear Stearns maintained an "outperform" rating on Google and said the Internet search giant may be looking to expand into the MP3 downloading business.

"We believe that Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) is in the midst of creating its own iTunes competitor, which we've dubbed 'Google Tunes'," the analyst wrote in a client note issued today. "We think this is a logical step, now that the nascent Google Video product has been introduced."......