Google posts slightly higher revenue, profit

Mountain View (CA) – Google beat Wall Street expectations and posted higher revenue and earnings for the first quarter of the year. But even Google said it still feels the impact of a troubled economy.

Revenues were $5.51 billion, up 6% from the first quarter of 2008, but down 3% from Q4. Net income was $1.42 billion which was up from $1.30 billion in Q1 2008 and up from $382 million in Q4 2008. Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that the company had a “good quarter”, given the economic environment. “Going forward, our priority remains investing for the long term to drive future growth in our core and emerging businesses,” he said.

Google-owned sites created 67% or $3.70 billion of total of total revenues, which represents a 9% increase over Q1 2008. Adsense partners brought in $1.64 billion which was down 3% from Q1 2008.  International revenues were $2.88 billion, or 52% of sales. This is a slight increase from the 51% share that was reported for the first quarter of 2008.