In Search of That Google-Like Glimmer

Admit it. You passed on Google at $85. You bought the stock -- or at least thought very, very hard about it -- as it neared $200, again as it passed $250, yet again as it broke above $300 and, defying even your more exuberant logic a mere six months before, when it shot above $400.

Along the way, you dabbled in Yahoo! and maybe some other Internet names like eBay or InterActiveCorp because it became clear that 2005 was the year at least a handful of these stocks got back some of the magic they had in that late, great year of 1999.

Now that Google is actually in a position to break through $500 -- an infinitely more unthinkable barrier than $400 was last summer -- research analysts are hustling out to lay down the barricades demarking reality from fantasy. No, they insist, thou shalt not buy Google at $425. Thou shalt smite Yahoo! if it rears its head above $40. There will be gnashing of teeth if thou wert foolish enough to buy eBay at $47.But such warnings are only partly useful unless you know where to put the money you just cashed out.

So where do you invest now? Although speculative trading may have ignited a bout of mini-mania in the Internet's biggest names, some investors say that has left the door open for opportunities to pick up some of the less celebrated names in tech.

"The market still hasn't recovered for a lot of small and mid-sized tech companies," says Alex Slusky, a managing partner at Vector Capital, a buyout firm specializing in forgotten and sometimes distressed Internet and software companies. "Growth is fleeting. High-growth companies have a tendency to disappoint. I'd rather own Oracle at $12 than Google at $420."