Today’s weak earnings announcement by Google capped a very difficult month for big-name tech stocks (Google coverage at Cnet, TechTrader and GigaOm). The volatility of each stock is remarkable considering the short time-frame and that each company experienced large swings in both directions.

The tech chart looks a lot like that of the video game industry’s big players (Nintendo, EA, Take Two, Madcatz, and THQ). I left Sony and Microsoft off the chart because video games aren’t their primary business driver… but their trends are only slightly better (-12 and -8% respectively). And this comes at a time when much of the buzz was around the health of this quickly growing industry (the Wii, Guitar Hero and Rock Band are massive successes, the PS3 is gaining momentum, etc).

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