IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY, KING MIDAS is popularly remembered for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold: the "Midas Touch". One company that has this uncommon power is Google Inc.

Let's take a look why. Google shares have increased more than sevenfold from their initial public offering price of $85, leaving the nine-year-old company with a market value of $193.31 billion---worth more than bigger, more mature businesses like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Coca-Cola Co., Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM Corp.

Google Inc. stock price sailed past $600 for the first time Monday, extending a rally that has elevated the Internet search leader's market value by about $25 billion in the past month. Wall Street investors are confident that the Web search leader's advertising technology will capitalize on new areas of the media industry. Google stands to benefit because it runs the largest advertising network on the world's hottest marketing medium, the Internet.

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