Google shares rebound to record high Google's shares rebounded to a record high as Wall Street shook off some of its lingering fears about whether the company can adapt to the new world of social networking and mobile internet access. Monday's rise, which lifted the shares $15.39 to close at $749.38, capped a powerful rally that has added 30 per cent, or $75bn, to Google's stock market value since the middle of July. However, the search company's shares have still failed to keep up with the Nasdaq Composite since the start of this year. Its stock price performance has also been put into the shade by more powerful advances at a handful of big internet companies including Amazon, eBay and Priceline. Google's shares last notched up a record close of $741.79 on November 6 2007, but fell back as the financial crisis triggered a severe advertising downturn. Although search held up better than other forms of advertising during the recession and its shares partially recovered, Google's prospects have been overshadowed more recently by the switch to mobile and the rise of Facebook. The recent rally shows that investors have grown less worried that the lower prices charged for mobile advertising will eat into Google's core business or that Facebook will draw users away, said Mark Mahaney, an internet analyst at Citigroup. Cost-cutting and streamlining at Motorola Mobility, the mobile handset and set-top box company Google acquired earlier this year, have also calmed fears aroused by the deal, he added. Google's push into online display advertising, starting with its acquisition of DoubleClick in 2008, has also been paying dividends. eMarketer, an internet analysis firm, last week predicted that Google will top Facebook to become the largest digital display company this year. The switch into Google shares partly reflects a switch of investments from some other internet stocks, said Anthony Di Clementi, internet analyst at Barclays in New York. Though he did not mention Facebook, Google's rally has coincided with the slump that followed the social networking company's disastrous initial public offering in May. A recent rally in Facebook's shares came to a halt on Monday, with the company's stock falling more than 9 per cent to $20.79, 40 per cent below the IPO price. The decline came as Facebook continued to face questions in the media, with the Financial Times reporting that the company was working with a controversial data company to improve the value of its advertising and Barron's suggesting its shares are still overvalued.