San Jose, Calif. ? When Google Inc. began its explosive rise nearly six years ago, it was unconventional in its stark layout, absence of annoying banner ads and unprecedented usefulness.

Now, preparing for a much-hyped initial public offering, the extraordinary search engine company has taken unorthodoxy another step. In the filing, co-founder Larry Page promises to make the world “a better place,” and says the company won’t “be evil.”

It’s a bold statement — unprecedented for documents typically a treacle of boilerplate and legalese. But some analysts are troubled.

They say the philosophy espoused by Google’s principals smacks of naivete, inflates already stratospheric expectations and could lead to investor disappointment.

The often-folksy Page note — described as an “owners manual” for Google shareholders — outlines plans to distribute initial shares fairly, put long-term opportunities ahead of short-term benefits, pamper employees and even start a charitable foundation.

“When you start saying things like this, I think you set yourself up for a fall,” said Tom Taulli, an author and lecturer at the University of Southern California’s School of Business.

“I can see a front-page story a couple years from now. … You’ve got to be careful what you say. It might come back to haunt you in the end,” he said.

The entire filing thumbs its nose at what’s considered business as usual, from how the IPO is handled to how the public company will be run.

For the IPO, an egalitarian open auction will set the price of initial shares. But afterward, the company is structured more like a fiefdom controlled by a triumvirate of Page, co-founder Sergey Brin and chief executive Eric Schmidt.

When corporate issues — like board elections or potential mergers — come up for a vote, Google insiders will hold a special class of stock that carries 10 votes for each share. Outsiders will get only one vote per share.

Google co-founders Larry Page, left, and Sergey Brin are seen at their company's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters in this Jan. 15 photo. Internet search engine leader Google Inc. filed its long-awaited IPO plans Thursday, setting the stage for the company to make its stock market debut.

“These guys are definitely doing everything they can to maintain control of the IPO process and maintain control of the company long-term,” said Jeff Stacey, managing director of IPO Monitor, a service that tracks IPO developments. “It’s all about control.”

“It’s called Google, but it’s really two thirty-somethings who hit the jackpot, and they don’t want to give that up,” Taulli said.

The lack of control under a two-class stock structure is not so much a concern for average investors who aren’t likely to sway a company even if their votes carry the same weight as the insiders. But it’s another story for institutional investors. The nation’s largest public pension fund, CalPERS, has argued against so-called dual-class stock with other companies.

Google can dictate its terms because of its strong performance and reputation. Unlike many dot-coms during the tech boom, Google’s revenue and profits are growing.

In the filing, the company said it earned $105.6 million, or 41 cents per share, on revenue of $962 million last year. It posted its first profit in 2001, as other dot-coms were melting away.

Page also promises that Google will not be a slave to Wall Street’s short-term expectations.

“Sergey and I feel this is harmful, and we intend to steer in the opposite direction,” he wrote, adding that Google will not shy away from “high-risk, high-reward projects.”

“Do not be surprised if we place smaller bets in areas that seem very speculative or even strange,” he said in the letter.

Jim Davis, chief marketing officer for privately-held software maker SAS Inc., said it might be wishful thinking for any publicly-traded company.

“I’d like to think Google can hold true to their guns, and maybe they can help Wall Street understand the importance of long-term strategies,” Davis said. “But I know what going public would do to us. … The quarterly pressures tend to stifle innovation for the long haul.”

Company outlines benefits

Google’s corporate utopia doesn’t stop in the accounting department. Its promise of not doing evil, for instance, refers to keeping its search results objective and untainted, like a newspaper keeps a wall between its journalism and advertising.

Employees also get a special mention in the letter.

“We provide many unusual benefits for our employees, including meals free of charge, doctors and washing machines,” the letter reads. “We are careful to consider the long-term advantages to the company of these benefits. Expect us to add benefits rather than pare them down over time.”

Many Silicon Valley companies are well known for the treatment of employees. Hewlett-Packard Co., for instance, invented the “HP Way” that describes mutual respect between managers and workers. Intel Corp.’s egalitarian leanings are manifested in executives working in cubicles rather than corner suites.

And dot-coms were famous for providing free snacks, massages and even game rooms for employees. But such policies tend to disappear when companies are having trouble meeting Wall Street expectations.

Observers question how Google’s corporate philosophy would withstand hard times. After all, Microsoft Corp. is working on its own Internet search technology, and one-time partner Yahoo! Inc. is already breathing down Google’s neck.

And though Schmidt, once an executive at Sun Microsystems Inc. and Novell Inc., is familiar with being squashed by Microsoft, the other parts of Google’s corporate triumvirate haven’t yet experienced such adversity, Taulli said.

“I don’t know if there’s the killer instinct at Google,” he said. “There’s this egalitarian, humanitarian (philosophy). … They’re going up against some very ruthless competitors.”