Google revenue for the second quarter increased 24 percent from last year, while profits were up slightly year-over-year but down from the first quarter.
Google on Thursday reported revenue of $6.82 billion for the second quarter, up 24 percent from the same time period last year, and up from $6.77 billion last quarter.
Profits, meanwhile, jumped to $1.84 billion from $1.48 billion during the same time period last year, but they were down from the $1.96 billion in profits recorded during the first quarter of this year.
"Google had a strong second quarter," Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in a statement. "Solid growth in our core business and very strong growth in our emerging businesses drove 24 percent revenue growth year over year. We saw strength in every major product area, as more and more traditional brand advertisers embraced search advertising and as large advertisers increasingly ran integrated campaigns across search, display, and mobile. We feel confident about our future, and plan to continue to invest aggressively in our core areas of strategic focus."
Google-owned sites accounted for 66 percent of total revenues with $4.5 billion. This is a 23 percent increase from the same time period last year, and a slight increase from last quarter's $4.44 billion total.
Google partner sites, meanwhile, generated $2.06 billion via AdSense, a 30 percent increase from last year, and up slightly from the $2.04 billion earned last revenue.
Google has added more than 1,000 new employees globally since March 31 for a total of 21,805 full-time staffers.
The company also said it has $30.1 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term marketable securities on hand, up from $26.5 billion on March 31.
About 300 of those new hires came from the companies Google acquired during the quarter. The remaining new employees were primarily in engineering and sales, with a focus on search, Android, applications, and display.
"For us, the recession is over," said Patrick Pichette, chief financial officer. It therefore makes sense to "fuel this eco-system" around search, mobile, and display. "That's why we're investing aggressively."
When it comes to Google's recent acquisitions, the company has looked at companies from the perspective of talent, intellectual property, and price, Pichette said.
"We have debates about it … and we often say no" to certain companies, he said.
Executives said that Android search grew 300 percent in the first half of 2010.
The most popular application on smartphones is the browser, and people are using the browser to search, which is the "formula for how Google succeeds," said Jonathan Rosenberg, senior vice president of product management for Google.
The Android market now has 70,000 apps, up from 30,000 in April.
When asked how Android might compare to Chrome OS, Rosenberg said it's still too early to tell. "We're mostly focused on Android, on building out the platform, on getting more smartphones out, and on the Chrome side, it's still too early to say."
Google declined to talk about YouTube's profitability, except to say that with 2 billion views per day, the video Web site is a "great business for us."
Google said it spent $100 million defending itself against Viacom, a case on which it recently prevailed. Viacom is appealing, so Pichette declined to comment too much on the specifics, but he did say that the ruling has given YouTube "more clarity."
"It gives us more room for experimentation," he said, pointing to the recent Old Spice YouTube campaign as an "absolutely phenomenal" way advertisers can leverage the site.
When asked about the current situation in China, Nikesh Arora, president of global sales operations and business development, said that given the "sensitivities" involved in the situation, "I hope you understand why I don't want to talk more about it."
Arora did stress, however, that from a financial standpoint, China is not material to Google's revenue, though Google had "decent" revenue in the region for the second quarter.