Google news from FierceCIO:TechWatch

Google Incorporated (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a Mountain View, Calif.-based technology company. According to ComScore, Google sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in February 2011 with 65.4 percent market share. Not only is Google the search leader, it also sells cloud computing and advertising services, and backs mobile operating system Android.

In the company's latest quarterly filing, Q4 2010, its revenue was $8.44 billion, a 26 percent increase over fourth quarter 2009 revenues of $6.67 billion. Google reported an operating income in Q4 2010 of $2.98 billion, or 35 percent of revenues; and a net income of $2.54 billion, compared to $1.97 billion in Q4 2009. 

"Q4 marked a terrific end to a stellar year," said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google in a statement. "Our strong performance has been driven by a rapidly growing digital economy, continuous product innovation that benefits both users and advertisers, and by the extraordinary momentum of our newer businesses, such as display and mobile. These results give us the optimism and confidence to invest heavily in future growth--investments that will benefit our users, Google and the wider web."

In 2010, Google expanded its business model to energy with a $38.3 million investment in wind farms developed by NextEra Energy Resources. The year also marked Google's acquisition of Global IP Solutions, a European web teleconferencing company; and AdMob, a mobile ad network.