Spare a thought for Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the idealistic - and fabulously wealthy - founders of Google. The events of recent days are a reminder of just how difficult it is to be the coolest company with the hottest share price on the planet. Yet being forced to live in the world occupied by lesser mortals need not spell an end to the Google founders' amazing story.

The trouble with being a runaway success is that everyone is tempted to project his or her fantasies on to you. Sometimes, those fantasies are uninvited: Mr Page and Mr Brin have always turned a cold shoulder to Wall Street, and should be applauded for not indulging in the sort of games with investors that some other internet companies have played. That has not stopped their share price from leaping into the stratosphere.