The impact of recession on Google was apparently visible in the first-quarter financial results, which the internet search giant posted on Thursday, but Google posted better than expected financial results for the first-quarter, in spite of the recession.

Google posted record profits of US$1.42bn in the first quarter. The company reported that its net profit surged up 8 percent to $1.42 billion and its revenue, v excluding commissions paid to advertising partners, surged 10 percent to $4.07 billion in the 1st Q. The company reported that it generated total revenue of US$5.51bn, which was down quarter on quarter basis, but 6 percent up from the same quarter last year. The company announced that it generated free cash flow of over $2 billion for the quarter.

Speaking at press conference after announcing the first-quarter financial results, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, "No company is recession-proof. Google is absolutely feeling the impact."

According to Google, in the first quarter of 2009, the Google-owned sites fetched revenues of US$3.70bn, representing 67 percent of the total revenues; 9 percent up from first quarter 2008 revenues of $3.40 billion, and 3 percent down from fourth quarter 2008 revenues of $3.81bn. On the other side, Google affiliated sites, through AdSense programmes, generated the revenues of $1.64bn, representing 30 percent of total revenues; 3 percent down from first quarter 2008 network revenues of US$1.69bn and 3 percent down from fourth quarter 2008 network revenues of $1.69bn.

Google reported that in the first quarter of 2009, it generated US$2.88bn revenues from outside, 52 percent of the total revenues; against 51 percent in the first quarter of 2008 and 50 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Schmidt said, "Google had a good quarter given the depth of the recession - while revenues were down quarter over quarter, they grew 6pc year over year, thanks to continued strong query growth. These results underline both the resilience of our business model and the ongoing potential of the web as users and advertisers shift online….Going forward, our priority remains investing for the long term to drive future growth in our core and emerging businesses."