Google registers huge Q2 profits

NEW YORK: Google Inc has reported a 36 per cent growth in net income to $2.51 billion for the April-June period of 2011 driven by robust performance of core search business coupled with growing strength in other areas such as social network. 

In the year-ago period, the company had a net income of $1.84 billion, the Internet search firm said in a statement. 

The company posted revenues of $9.03 billion for the second quarter ended June 30, 2011, an increase of 32 per cent compared to the same period of 2010. 

"We had a great quarter, with revenue up 32 per cent year on year for a record breaking over $9 billion of revenue," Google CEO Larry Page said. 

Google, which recently launched a social network site called Google plus is believed to have more than 10 million people plugged into it. The company is "super excited about the amazing response to Google+ which lets you (user)share just like in real life". 

The robust quarterly numbers indicate that company is not only growing in its core search business but also powering ahead in other areas such as new businesses like Google+ and Android. 

In addition, the company is also expanding in areas such as mobile and display advertising. 

Google-owned sites generated revenues of $6.23 billion in the second quarter of 2011, or 69 per cent of total revenues. This represents a 39 per cent jump over the year-ago quarter 2010 revenues of $4.50 billion. 

Besides, the company's partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programmes, of $2.48 billion, in the second quarter of 2011, up 20 per cent from the year-ago period'. 

Internet search giant said its paid clicks, a measure of how frequently consumers click on its ads, grew 18 per cent in the second quarter compared with the same period a year earlier. The average price that marketers paid Google per click rose 12 per cent from a year earlier. 

During the quarter, the company has hired over 2,400 new personnel to touch 28,768 employees as of June 30, 2011.

News Technology Facebook Facebook to team up with Skype for video chat, say reports

Facebook is reportedly planning this week to team up with Skype to launch a video chat function for its millions of users.

It would mean that Facebook members, already accustomed to posting status updates and photographs, sharing news stories and sending messages via their profiles, would also be able to video chat live with other members.

The news was reported by a respected technology blog, Tech Crunch, in a story written by its editor, Michael Arrington, a well-known figure in social media circles across the world. "Next week, says a source with knowledge of the partnership, Facebook will launch a new video chat product, powered by Skype," Arrington wrote.

Rumours about a tie-up between Facebook and Skype have swirled for several years without a finished product emerging. But this latest round of speculation is given credence by the fact that Facebook's young founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has announced a major news conference for a new product this Wednesday.

Zuckerberg told reporters that the firm would "launch something awesome" that had been developed by the firm's Seattle research engineering office. Predictions that this would involve video chat were also boosted by the fact that press invitations to the event were decorated with a small chat icon with a silhouette of a person in one of them. "Suddenly those chat icons in the invitation have a lot more meaning," Arrington commented.

Another influential tech blog, Mashable, confirmed the story. "While Facebook and Skype aren't saying anything officially, our sources confirm that Skype-powered video chat on Facebook will indeed be launching next week," the website reported.

If true, the move is likely to cement Facebook even further into the lives of its growing number of global users. The company, founded in 2004, is already one of the biggest and most influential in the world, with an estimated 500 million-plus active users.

Through the exploding industry of social media, Facebook's influence is spreading through the media, entertainment and advertising industries. Having a video chat function using Skype would extend its reach even further, potentially encroaching on the mobile telephone sector.

Facebook's success has turned 27-year-old Zuckerberg into one of the richest self-made men in the world, worth billions of dollars. Last year he was the subject of the Hollywood film The Social Network, which was nominated for eight Oscars.