Google Keeps Growing, Stock Keeps Rising

Google is already the US most popular search engine, but new data indicate it enjoyed a substantial jump in traffic this past month. Reuters reports that the search giant accounted for 58.5% of the American market. Google is trailed by Yahoo, Microsoft, IAC (the owners of Ask.com), and Time Warner (owner of AOL) for shares of the search market—and all four of those challengers saw their traffic flatline or drop.

Google's already astronomical stock price went up another 3% yesterday, hitting a high of $670 before settling back. On Tuesday the broker Credit Suisse said that the climb wasn't over yet and predicted a $900 ceiling on Google stock. "We believe that search is a natural monopoly business and expect that over time Google will continue to gain share until they have effectively reached 100 percent," said one of the bank's analysts. (More Google stories.)