Google’s share price hit a new high on Friday, reflecting the company’s push into new ways for advertisers to reach its massive online audience.

Yahoo News reports, “Google’s shares peaked at $560.79 before falling back to finish at $560.10, up $7.27, or 1.3 percent. The rally eclipsed Google’s previous record high of $558.58 attained in mid-July, just days before the Mountain View-based company disillusioned investors with a second-quarter profit below analyst estimates”.

Google has a market value of almost $175 billion, more than Hewlett-Packard and IBM. The stock has increased six-fold from its IPO price of $85 in August 2004.

The Federal Reserve Bank’s decision to lower short-term interest rates by 0.5 percentage points means Google stands to benefit because it runs the largest advertising network on the Internet.

Despite challenges, Google has been able to widen its lead in search — the activity that triggers the text-based ad links that have become a huge moneymaker for the Mountain View company.

Google now handles 54 percent of all U.S. search requests. Yahoo lags well behind at 20 percent followed by Microsoft at 13 percent.

Google earned $1.9 billion on $7.5 billion in revenue during the first half of this year. That will increase during the second half because of the Christmas/Holidays shopping season.

According to Yahoo News, “Several industry analysts already are forecasting Google shares will soon surpass $600. The stock eclipsed $500 for the first time 10 months ago”.

In conditions of the highest secrecy with NDAs slapped on insiders, the long-awaited GooglePhone is set to enter a crowded marketplace sometime soon after America’s Labor Day.

Thought to be an early prototype of the GooglePhone

It is being described it as “simpler” and not as flashy as Apple’s iPhone. It has the ability to scroll through icons horizontally, making a number of different features easily accessible despite the limited screen space.

Another described it as having three-dimensional, animated buttons on the screen with a small QWERTY keyboard, like a Treo or a BlackBerry, rather than relying on a touch-screen, like the iPhone.

Earlier, Sim Simeonov, a technologist-in-residence at Polaris Venture Partners in Waltham, blogged an entry titled “The Real Google Phone.” He wrote that an “inside source” had described a “BlackBerry-like, slick device,” and that “Google would create distribution partnerships with a number of different mobile carriers, unlike Apple, which is locked into AT&T for five years”.

In August, The Wall Street Journal reported that Google hopes that several different manufacturers will build the phones and multiple carriers will help distribute them. Google will supply the software and deliver ads to the phones.

Engadget wrote last week that Google’s new operating system for cellphones, could be revealed shortly after Labor Day.

We await developments with interest.