Google’s 4th Quarterly Earnings Report more than Analyst expectation

Google 4th Quarterly Report comes out as a bright spot in the midst of gloomy economy. The Google’s quarterly results encouraged investors and analysts who had been lowering their expectations about Google's performance, as economy's troubles are deepening considerably.

Google's quarterly result specifies that search advertising, though not impervious to the economy, continues to look more attractive to marketers than other kinds of ads.

Google made $382 million, or $1.21 per share, in the three months ending in December 2008. That was a 68% drop from the same period December 2007. Google's profit had climbed by at least 17% in its previous 17 quarters as a public company.

Google's sales rose 21 percent at $4.22 billion, about $100 million, which is quite above analyst expectations, after subtracting commissions paid to its ad partners. It revenue rose by about 18% to $5.7 billion. It's the first time since Google went public in 2004 that its quarterly revenue growth has been less than 30 percent, but it was still a double-digit increase in a deteriorating economy. Excluding special items, Google said earnings for the period were $5.10 a share.

At present stage, even with gloomy economic condition, I can certainly bet on Google looking at the future growth in internet search engine advertising, as well as Google is trying to bring their free services to paid services like Google Apps, which is suite of online applications like gmail, Google calendar, Google Docs, etc.