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 Internet giant Google has exceeded the expectations of investors, reporting revenue of $5.19 billion for the first three months of 2008.

This figure is 42 per cent higher than the search engine provider reported in the first quarter of last year.

Commenting on the impressive results, Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google, said: "Our ongoing innovation in search, ads and apps helped drive healthy growth globally across our product lines, yielding another strong quarter for Google."

He added that, as the firm integrates DoubleClick into its ad platform, new ways to improve the experiences of users and increase value for advertisers and publishers open up.

Mr Schmidt continued: "Also, while exercising operational discipline, we continue to explore opportunities that add value to users everywhere and to Google in the long-term."

As a result of Google's announcement, shares in the company rose sharply in after-hours trading, increasing by more than 17 per cent.

Investors had been concerned after a report by research firm comScore recently suggested that click-through rates on Google had increased by only two per cent compared with last year.

Responding to the positive results in light of Wall Street fears, Rob Sanderson, an analyst with American Technology Research, stated that "there was a lot of smoke and not much fire", the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

He added that investors were "very much relieved" when Google posted its figures.