San Francisco  - Google's earnings rose strongly in the second quarter, the company reported Thursday. But the 35 per cent gain wasn't enough for some investors who had expected better from the high-flying young internet behemoth, sending Google shares down some 10 per cent to 477 dollars in after hours trading.

The Silicon Valley-based search giant said it earned 1.25 billion dollars, or 3.92 dollars a share, compared with 925 million dollars, or 2.93 dollars a share, in the second quarter of 2007. Analysts had been expecting a net profit of around 4 dollars a share. Revenue climbed 39 per cent, to 5.37 billion dollars, from 3.87 billion dollars a year earlier.

"Strong international growth as well as sustained traffic increases on Google's Web properties propelled us to another strong quarter, despite a more challenging economic environment," said Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive. International markets accounted for 52 per cent of Google's revenue in the quarter.

Almost 95 per cent of Google's revenue came from search advertising. Google said that clicks on its search advertisements increased approximately 19 per cent over the second quarter of 2007 and decreased one percent from the first quarter of 2008. (dpa)