Google's shares topped $600 Monday for the first time, making its market capitalisation greater than the three biggest traditional media companies – Time Warner, Walt Disney Co. and News Corp. – combined.

According to Monday's closing price of $609.62 per share, Google has a $190.28 billion market cap. Meanwhile, traditional media's Big three - Time Warner ($71.23 billion), Walt Disney Co. ($68.50 billion) and News Corp. ($49.00 billion) - reached $188.73 billion combined.

Google's market value is also now 3.6 times greater than all of the publicly traded ad agency holding companies on Madison Avenue - WPP ($17.72 billion), Omnicom ($16.43 billion), Publicis ($8.57 billion), Interpublic ($4.89 billion), Aegis ($2.96 billion), Havas ($2.484 billion) and MDC Partners ($274 billion) - combined, Media Post reported.

The apparent contrast of the new and traditional media companies are more than just symbolic.

“They signal investor confidence that allow companies to leverage their share value in stock-based acquisitions that can help companies grow even bigger and more dominant over time. And if Google's high price/earnings multiple seems bubblish, it wasn't apparent to experts on Wall Street,” a Media Post article stated.

Analysts from Piper Jaffray and Thompson Financial raised their expectations for Google last week, as its latest quarterly earnings on October 18 was approaching. Partly because of improved revenue forecasts, analysts at Bear Stearns, for example, have pegged the online giant's stock to reach $625 per share by the end of this year – with a target price set at $700.

Google's price has boosted along with its share of search, and its newly-entered areas like contextual advertising, and hosted e-mail, calendaring and publishing applications. Shares were initially at $85 when the company went public in August 2004, and had closed at nearly $460 by the end of 2006.

“The search giant's amazing progress has even driven some industry analysts (namely Silicon Alley Insider's Henry Blodget) to forecast shares to hit $2,000 over the next few decades – but this quarter's all-important earnings release will most certainly determine the stock's performance for the near term,” Media Post concluded.