Google Shares Jump as Profits Impress

Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder and president of technology, said that mobile searches are "growing very rapidly" due to market growth. Brin added that the entire library of the company's YouTube video-sharing service is available for mobile users, and that Google has seen "mobile playbacks increase tremendously."

Regarding Google's failed auction bid for a block of the Federal Communications Commission 700-MHz spectrum, Brin said he was still satisfied in that the open access of the spectrum's prime C-block will benefit developers and consumers alike. "I know we did not come back with any wins, but I feel it's been an important experience for us," Brin said.

Because the sale price of the C-block topped the $4.6 billion reserve, auction winner Verizon (VZ) must use the spectrum as an open network, allowing any mobile device to run on it. Google had pushed for the development of the C-block into an open network in hopes it would increase wireless competition, as the company plans to launch its free Android cellphone software platform for several manufacturers later this year

As usual, the company did not provide any guidance for the second quarter or the full year.

Google's earnings release comes a week after rival Yahoo! (YHOO) reached out to Google to outsource some of its search ads. Yahoo! said it will begin a limited test of Google's AdSense, which will deliver relevant Google ads alongside Yahoo!'s search results.

The news of Yahoo!'s arrangement with Google put a snag in Microsoft's (MSFT) quest to acquire the Internet search engine. A day after Google last reported quarterly results, Microsoft offered more than $44 billion for Yahoo!. Should that deal, which Yahoo! hasn't embraced, actually close, it would create a major challenger to Google's dominance in the Internet space.

Thus far, this has been a generally upbeat week for big technology stocks, in terms of their results. In recent days, chipmaker Intel (INTC), hardware and software developer IBM (IBM) and Internet auction house eBay (EBAY) have all topped analysts' quarterly earnings estimates.

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