Google Inc.'s shares fell to their lowest levels in 4-1/2 months on Friday as analysts bemoaned recent communication miscues and its refusal to be more open about its finances.

Though analysts say they are confident of the growth outlook for Google's search advertising business and its place in the industry, they fear that public perception is turning negative for the company, which once seemingly could do no wrong.

The company has made a series of stumbles that have confused investors over whether the company is suffering from slowing growth. When a company has invested as much as google has in infrastructure as of late, it seems few remember that this type of investment takes some period to even deploy.

Google's stock touched an intraday low of $331.55 on Friday, a new low since its upward momentum was broken in January. It closed down $5.50, or 1.6 percent, at $337.50.

Analysts are forecasting a deceleration of Google's growth rate to still highly respectable levels of 50 to 60 percent for 2006 and around 40 percent in 2007. While this adjustment has many people running it is more like following the cattle. Long term growth is likely on target and in this model there will be oversurges and take the money and run investors.

But Google's do-no-evil image has come under siege by critics from many directions over the compromises it made to enter the Chinese market and the handling of its communications with Wall Street in the wake of last week's analyst meeting.

Among the missteps was the apparently unintentional disclosure of future product plans and financial targets in a Wall St presentation last week. The company has instructed investors that the financial targets were outdated and reemphasized its policy of not commenting on its outlook. This was exacerbated by hints of slowing growth that Google Chief Financial Officer George Reyes made in late February.