It is to be expected that bank stocks would rally on news of a possible rate cut, but why should lower interest rates propel the shares of Internet darlings and computer makers?

However, a report from Forrester Research in October 2011 suggested that the Groupon business model was a "disaster" and that the firm had become an example of "how fast an Internet darling can fall."

That would give the Internet darling a market capitalization of $21 billion - one-third the value of all books sold in the world at retail last year.

Technology stocks remained the market victors in the first quarter, but old standbys like Intel seemed to be eclipsing Internet darlings by the end.

But rampant selling ravaged even the most-favored stocks, such as Coca-Cola, General Electric and Microsoft, as well as the Internet darlings Excite Inc. and Amazon.com.

Google is not as expensive as Yahoo, an earlier Internet darling, was when it peaked about six years ago.

Unlike pre-millennial Internet darlings, Google makes money.

Morgan Stanley's investment banking stars were churning out hot public offerings of Internet darlings and the Dean Witter brokers, bolstered by the bullish research of its star Internet analyst, Mary Meeker, pushed the stocks through their retail investor channels.

One Merrill analyst, for example, publicly recommended an Internet darling called InfoSpace even as he privately called the stock a "powder keg" or worse.

MP3.com, which is based in San Diego, was one of Wall Street's first Internet darlings.