While Yahoo! this month announced a profit slide – despite a still health share of search users – Google posted net income for the quarter of US$1 billion (A$1.2 billion), compared to US$595 million for the year ago quarter.
Revenue jumped to US$3.7 billion compared to US$2.3 billion for the first quarter last year.
Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said the strong revenue and profit result reflected the strength of the company’s core search and ad sales business, and the fact that it had successfully built on its partnership program in the past year.
“We continued to expand our worldwide footprint, adding important new partners and growing our platform to increase our ability to deliver targeted and measurable ads” Mr Schmidt said.
“The ongoing expansion of our network allows us to improve the user experience through new opportunities and programs.”
Revenues from outside of the United States totaled US$1.71 billion, representing 47 per cent of total revenues in the first quarter of 2007, compared to 42 per cent in the first quarter of 2006 and 44 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2006.
Google’s Golden Goose remains its search advertising revenue. According to research group eMarketer, Google owns about 75 per cent of the total search ad market in the US, compared to Yahoo’s 16 per cent.
The company is now seeking to diversify its revenue spread by applying its search expertise into other advertising areas. In the past month the company has signed agreements with satellite television and networked local radio stations to place advertising using more targeted advertising techniques.
Google has also announced a plan to buy online display advertising specialist DoubleClick for US$3.1 billion, though the deal is facing some opposition from competitors and privacy groups saying it gives the company too much market power.
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