Google posts 'good' quarter

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Google has continued to post quarterly growth despite the tough economic conditions, reporting second quarter revenue of $5.52 billion up three per cent from the same period last year.

"Google had a very good quarter, especially given the continued macro-economic downturn," said chief executive Eric Schmidt, adding that the growth happened as "most of the world's largest economies shrank".

Just over half of its revenue was from the US, while UK revenue made up 13 per cent of the total. About two-thirds of Google's revenue came from its websites, with the bulk of the rest coming from networks like AdSense.

"These results highlight the enduring strength of our business model and our responsible efforts to manage expenses in a way that puts us in a good position for the economic upturn, when it occurs," said Schmidt.

He stressed that Google will continue to invest in innovation - a point proven with the recent announcement of the Chrome operating system. "We remain focused on investing in technical innovation to drive growth in our core and new businesses," he said.

Google this week also remained buoyant about the financial vitality of YouTube, the service it acquired back in 2006, despite its losses thus far.