Many are still agog over outlook of Google

IBM did not devour the world. Neither did Microsoft.

Google won't either. But just as those once-feared, now-mature technology behemoths did in the past, it is dramatically raising the bar of expectation and innovation.

The No. 1 Internet search engine has $11.2 billion in cash and no debt.

It exceeded analyst expectations for earnings in all but one of its 10 quarters as a publicly traded company. Earnings nearly tripled in the fourth quarter to $1.03 billion on a 67 percent increase in sales over a year earlier. It remains a consensus "buy" among analysts, according to Thomson Financial.

Daunting, yes. But a single company is not a technology portfolio, innovation has never been anyone's sole property and there are many trends to play.

Consider that popular gift of the last holiday season, the personal navigation device that provides displays and maps for motorists. Some analysts expect the market to triple in the next five years.

Garmin Ltd. (GRMN) is a leading designer and manufacturer of these "global positioning systems," while SiRF Technology Holdings (SIRF) is the most prominent maker of computer chips that run them.

Own an iPod? In the past two years, sales have doubled for SanDisk Corp. (SNDK), the pioneer and leader in "flash" memory technologies used in portable consumer electronic devices such as music players, cell phones and digital cameras. This type of memory chip doesn't lose content when you power down.

Investors, thanks to the example set by Google Inc. (GOOG), are gradually learning a tech firm's ingenuity and growth potential can mean even more than being first.

"Google changed the perception of what it takes to be a superstar," said Allen Weiner, managing vice president for the Gartner Group, a research and advisory firm in Stamford, Conn. "It came to the market when search engines were already there, but found a better way of doing it."

When Google was stealing Yahoo's thunder in the search engine business, it was also becoming a part of pop culture as the world began to "Google." But don't expect such lightning to strike often.

"I can't imagine technology stocks being held to the standards of Google, for there are no other companies of its size with its growth and profit margins," said Scott Kessler, director of the information technology group of Standard & Poor's Corp. in New York. "There is no peer for Google."