Leave it to Google to inject some life into the dog days of summer on Wall Street. By raising $1.7 billion in an initial public offering through an unconventional Dutch auction, the popular Internet search engine paved its own path to the public markets. But it was a bumpy ride. Despite all the hype leading up to the sale, the take was far less than the $3.5 billion the company had expected to raise. Google last week slashed the price of its stock, but only after disclosing yet more bad news: inquiries by the Securities and Exchange Commission into the registration of some of its shares and a possible violation of the pre-IPO "quiet period" by company executives. Shares went public at $85, down from the expected $108 to $135 per share.

But it turned out that investor appetite was still there, at least at first. Shares jumped 18 percent on Day 1 of trading and ended the week at $108.31, making Google worth $29 billion.

Cashing out. "I definitely think it was a mixed success," says Scott Kessler, Internet equity analyst for Standard & Poor's. "They largely achieved their goals, but when you look back on how it unfolded, they could have done a better job."

Still, Google's IPO is unmistakably one for the books. The Dutch auction system for pricing the IPO shares opened the door for individual investors to get in on the goods, which Wall Street banks typically reserve for their institutional clients. Letting investors determine the price is designed to avoid an initial pop in the stock price and encourage investors to hold on to their shares instead of flipping them to earn a quick profit. In Google's case, neither of those things materialized.

More than 22 million Google shares changed hands on the first day of trading, bringing a windfall to those early investors. And the 18 percent run-up meant that Google could have theoretically banked more money. But no one is shedding a tear for the company's executives. Cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are each still worth a tidy $4.1 billion. -Megan Barnett