NEW YORK (AFP) - Internet search behemoth Google saw its stock surge past 600 dollars Monday after some Wall Street analysts had released favorable reports on its business operations.

Google shares rose briefly to a record 601.45 dollars in morning trading, before retreating to 598.94 dollars at 1633 GMT.

Several industry analysts raised their expectations for Google last week, as the company prepares to release its latest quarterly earnings on October 18, boosting investor appetite for the hot technology stock.

Analysts at Bear Stearns said Friday that the company's stock could soar to 625 dollars by the end of this year, due in part to improved revenue forecasts and set a target price of 700 dollars for the stock.

In just nine years, Google has ballooned at breakneck speed from a two-person outfit into a multinational corporation with a market value of around 187 billion dollars.

Google makes most of its money by selling online advertising, according to analysts. It collects revenues by charging advertisers every time an Internet user clicks on an advert displayed on Google's websites.

Its name has also become a verb, to Google, among computer users surfing the Internet for information.

Its share price has surged along with its business empire. When Google went public in August 2004 its shares initially sold at 85 dollars. Its shares ended 2006 around 460 dollars.

The Mountain View, California, based company created in 1998 by Stanford University researchers Larry Page and Sergey Brin in a California garage has fueled its expansion through aggressive takeovers.

It is vying to take over online ad targeting company DoubleClick for 3.1 billion dollars, although the potential deal is being assessed by government regulators.

Google announced a new initiative Monday with IBM which aims to promote new software development methods to better address large-scale computing. Several US universities are backing the project.

The company reported a second quarter net profit of 925 million dollars.

Google started offering readers of its Internet news service direct access to AFP news stories in August after the two companies signed a licensing agreement.