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Net income rose by $300 million compared to the previous year, reaching $1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2008, and revenue increased 42% in the same period. For the first time, the company received more income from outside of the US than within.

The released figures also show that Google is confident enough to have invested $842 million in data centres, servers and networking equipment in the last quarter.

"Our ongoing innovation in search, ads, and apps helped drive healthy growth globally across our product lines,

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yielding another strong quarter for Google," says Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, who has previously described the company as "recession-proof".

"As we integrate DoubleClick into our advertising platform, we see exciting new ways to improve the user experience and increase value for our advertisers and partners," continues Schmidt.

Google recently sacked 300 staff from its latest acquisition, Doubleclick, which cost the company $3.1 billion.

Although Google's results are better than expected, the company still has some way to go before it recovers from a general decline in its share price since December that saw a third of its value wiped out by fears of a coming economic slowdown.

IBM and Intel have also surpassed investor profit estimates this week, posting first quarter profit figures that suggest the IT sector may fair better than expected in a declining economy.