TECHNOLOGY BRIEFING
Google's stock will be added to the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, a long-anticipated rite of passage that lifted the online search engine leader's recently sagging shares.</br></br>Standard & Poor's announced the forthcoming change after the stock market closed. Google will replace Burlington Resources on March 31. Burlington Resources is being acquired by ConocoPhillips.</br></br>Google's shares gained $1.67 to close at $341.89 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, then soared $31.61, or 9 percent, in extended trading as of 8 p.m.</br></br>Gratis Internet, a District-based company, is being sued by New York Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer for allegedly selling the personal information of millions of consumers.</br></br>Gratis gives video games, CDs, iPods and other products to consumers who sign up for promotions through its Web sites. Spitzer's suit alleges that the firm sold lists of millions of customers to independent e-mail marketers.