In today's analyst call it was hard to hear the nuanced messages above the roar of a giant earnings miss and the stock tanking nearly 20% at one point after hours.  But the well-scripted remarks from Schmidt, Page, Brin and Reyes, while reminiscent of Greenspeak, actually contained some important hints for the Google investor.

At least twice during the call we heard that more innovation will be happening in 2006 than in prior years.  Eric Schmidt said, "the rate of innovation will increase in 2006."  And George Reyes answered an analyst's question about capital investment by saying, "R&D spending will increase as the pace of innovation increases in 2006."  Since Schmidt and Reyes used nearly identical language, it's clear that their messages were coordinated and intentional.  I take this to mean that we'll be seeing more new products and search enhancements delivered in 2006 than in 2005, which was itself a year of torrid innovation.

And in reply to an analyst's question about rising sales and marketing expenditures, we heard that Google is pulling out all the stops and directing "extra investment to international markets" in order to chase "exceptional opportunities."

Google is pressing its advantages in engineering and innovation to, in Schmidt's words, "deliver innovation at scale."  It's something that few if any competitors can match, and Google is doubling down on their investments to cement that advantage.