Google uses its impressive second quarter results announcement last night to wax lyrical on the early success of its high-profile Google+ social networking service. During an announcement that saw the search giant post a 36 percent jump in quarterly profit (to US$2.51 billion) and a 32 percent increase in revenue (to US$9.03 billion), new CEO Larry Page said more than 10 million people have joined Google+ since it launched a limited, invitation-only trial earlier this month.
Page said there are more than 1 billion items shared and received in a single day through Google+, which is Google's latest effort to take on Facebook in social networking, while the Google +1 button (which lets people recommend things like websites) is being served 2.3 billion times a day. Page even took a shot at its rivals; he appeared to mimic Apple’s Steve Jobs by saying there is a "lot of magic built into the product" and also fired at Facebook, saying Google+ is meant to be "more like you'd share in real life," which is a "different product than is out there now."
Meanwhile Google revealed that there are now 550,000 phones a day activated on Android, with more than 135 million total Android device activations to date. Although company growth in the latest three-month period was driven by Google’s core search engine advertising, Page stressed that the company's investments in its Android mobile-device software and the Chrome Web browser will "generate huge new businesses for Google in the long run, just like search." Headcount increased in the last three months by 2,452 (to 28,768), with the company having “cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities” of US$39.1 billion.
In a statement, Google noted that “we expect to continue to make significant capital expenditures.” Last night the company's shares were up more than 10 perent in after-hours trading after ending at US$528.94 at 4 pm on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
