At the end of last year, Google's top secret money machine returned to overdrive. And in the first quarter, it was more of the same.

For the quarter ending March 31, Google pulled in $6.77bn in revenue, a 23 per cent leap from the same period last year - the 2009 quarter where the company was most affected by the worldwide economic meltdown.

But a year later, profits are, shall we say, much higher. And the company is now shrinking ad coverage.

In the quarter just ended, Mountain View pulled in $1.96bn in profits, up 38 per cent from the same quarter last year. Traditionally, Google's strongest quarter is the fourth. Christmastime, naturally. But as the economy continued to rebound, the company pulled in more revenues in the first quarter than it did in fourth.

First quarter aggregate paid clicks leapt 15 per cent from the same quarter last year and five per cent from the fourth quarter, and cost per click jumped seven per cent from the first last year and four per cent from the fourth quarter.

Money machine indeed. ®