Google Q4 profits nearly triple

Google today announced its fourth quarter financial results and they are a lot better than analysts had anticipated. In Q4 2006 the search engine's revenue increased to $3.21 billion, which is 67% more than the same period a year ago.

The search engine's profit nearly tripled from $372 million in Q4 2005 to $1.03 billion. Per share Google's profits increased from $1.22 last year to $3.29. In the third quarter of 2006 the company reported a net profit of $733 million and earnings per share of $2.36.

Analysts expected earnings per share of $2.92. Google's revenue excluding the income from partner websites rose 61% to 2.23 billion, which is in-line with expectations of Wall Street analysts.