My Google Shares! They're Melting … Melting … Melting

Google (GOOG) took a nasty slide this morning as comScore released new data that reveals what appears to be a material weakening in the company’s advertising business. How material? Google’s sponsored clicks were down 7% month-over-month, effectively flat year-over-year and down 12% quarter-over-quarter.

Perhaps the slowing economy is having an impact on Google’s growth after all. Certainly the continued deceleration in the company’s paid click growth suggests as much. In October of 2007 Google showed 37% click growth. In November it showed 27%. Then in December it showed 12%. And in January it showed no growth at all. As Henry Blodget notes over at Silicon Alley Insider, that sort of steady decline seems more a trend than “a wacky one-month comScore aberration.”

Google shares are down more than $34, or about 7%, at $451 as I write this.