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. ...