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At one stage the price had fallen by 19 per cent, wiping $20bn off Google's value after quarterly earnings were 13 per cent less than predicted. Until now Google has performed spectacularly since going public in 2004, exceeding expectations by at least 10 per cent in every quarter.

Having seen Google's share price rise fourfold in 16 months, analysts have begun to warn that there may be some discrepancy between the company's stock market value and the value of its business.

However the relatively poor results are not seen as grounds for concern. Google is not losing market share to its rivals and has doubled revenues over the course of the past 12 months.

'The issue was Google came in line, as opposed to having a blow-out quarter,' analyst Martin Pyykkonen of Hoefer & Arnett in Denver told Reuters. 'As far as anything deteriorating or market share loss or Yahoo! being stronger and Google not being as strong, none of that seems to be the issue here.'