SEO Blog

Google put forth a press release today announcing its 2005 fourth quarter results. Despite positive earnings, stock plummeted.

“We are very pleased with our results for the fourth quarter as we achieved excellent performance across our businesses,” said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. “We generated significant revenue growth in our core search and advertising business, driven by continued strength in traffic and monetization. We will continue to invest significantly as we develop innovative new products and as we extend our core technologies to new user access points and to different channels.”

For Q4, 2005, Google reported total revenues of $1.919 billion, an 86 percent increase over Q4, 2004, and a 22 percent increase over Q3, 2005. Its net income was $372 million, up from $204 million the year before.

Despite this, Google stocks dropped after revenues failed to meet analyst expectations, combined with the Federal Reserve’s announcement of an interest rate increase to curb inflation. Google stock fell to $364.49, dropping 15.8 percent.

According to reports, both MSN and Google have refused to appear before a Human Rights Caucus set for this Wednesday. The Caucus was called to delve into China’s compliance demands on American Internet companies. Yahoo! has still not stated whether or not it will attend.

Recently, Google has come under heavy scrutiny for abiding by China’s strict censorship laws and omitting information from its Chinese based search site.

Last week Google, Yahoo! and MSN were called to appear before a congressional hearing set for February 16th, to answer questions about their compliance with Chinese law. Thanks to the San Francisco Chronicle for the information.