Google announced earnings, showing a 23% increase in revenue from the first quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010. Google earned $6.77 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2010. Google’s operating income was $2.49 billion, or 37% of revenues and net income was $1.96 billion up from $1.42 billion the year prior.

Here are some key highlights:

• Google-owned sites generated revenues of $4.44 billion, or 66% of total revenues
• Network revenue or AdSense programs, earned of $2.04 billion, or 30% of total revenues
• Paid clicks increased approximately 15% over the first quarter of 2009 and increased approximately 5% over the fourth quarter of 2009
• Cost per click prices also increased approximately 7% over the first quarter of 2009 and decreased approximately 4% over the fourth quarter of 2009
• Google has $26.5 billion cash on hand
• Google employed 20,621 full-time employees as of March 31, 2010, up from 19,835 full-time employees as of December 31, 2009

Here is the earnings summary presentation:

Related Topics: Google: Business Issues | Top News

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz