Google Back on Track for World Domination; Considers Relocation to Seattle

Google shook off the recession and said its Internet advertising business picked up steam during the third quarter, as marketers began spending again. The Internet search company's revenue increased 7% from the year-earlier quarter to $5.94 billion. That compares with just 3% year-over-year growth in the second quarter. Revenue was also up 8% sequentially from the second quarter, picking up after being flat from the first to second quarter of the year. Profits grew even faster as Google continued to restrain its costs. Net income rose 27% to $1.64 billion from a year ago. "While there's obviously a lot of uncertainty about the pace of economic recovery, we believe the worst of the recession is behind us and we're seeing lots of signs of that in all of the industries that we pay attention to," said Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt. Schmidt added that Google was ready to start investing again, citing plans to hire and pursue acquisitions and partnerships. The company is launching a new online service that will let readers buy electronic versions of books and read them on such gadgets as cell phones, laptops and possibly e-book devices. Google Editions marks its first effort to earn revenue from its Google Books scanning project, which attempts to make millions of printed books available online. Although the scanning program has faced complaints from authors and publishers over copyright, Google Editions will cover only books submitted and approved by the copyright holders when it launches next year.