ComScore data on the search market are widely considered the industry standard and therefore more closely watched by Wall Street. Still, the big picture is clear: Google is not the competition, it’s the environment in which you compete. The IT industry used to say that about IBM (IBM), but today, the adage seems equally applicable to Google, which dominates the search market just as IBM once dominated the computer industry.

An anomalous pronouncement given the general tenor of financial news lately. But not for IBM (IBM), which, remarkably, seems to be growing more profitable even with some of its major businesses suffering declines. As Palmisano said, “The economics aren’t great, but we’re doing better than others.” And it certainly is, perhaps in no small part thanks to the company’s practice of sacking U.S. employees and shifting their jobs to lower-cost countries, which is apparently serving it quite well in this souring economy.