I think GOOG will fall back down to earth eventually. I'm not sure why Glass and self-driving cars seem to be driving it up. They seem like very long term projects and they're bound to have plenty of competition.
Because of the boldness of their ideas and experiments. At the very least they will attract more talent over competitors.
Google Fiber seems to be getting a lot of news lately as well.
Microsoft really should copy Google Fiber and call it Microsoft Optics! Then we can all have gigabyte internet for cheap.
Microsoft can't just copy Google and pretend that they're relevant. Playing second fiddle to Google is a pretty damning place for Microsoft to be.