San Francisco - Internet search powerhouse Google bucked the economic downturn in the first quarter, posting an 8.9-per-cent rise in profits as revenues climbed 6.2 per cent.

The Silicon Valley-based online advertising giant earned 1.42 billion dollars in the quarter, up from 1.31 billion in the same quarter a year ago.

Revenue rose 6.2 per cent to 5.51 billion dollars but marked a 3- per-cent drop from the fourth quarter - the first time that the internet search company saw a decline in revenue between two consecutive quarters.

"Google had a good quarter given the depth of the recession," Google CEO Eric E Schmidt said in a statement.

"These results underline both the resilience of our business model and the ongoing potential of the web as users and advertisers shift online. Going forward, our priority remains investing for the long term to drive future growth in our core and emerging businesses."

The earnings report marked the first results of Google's effort to trim costs by cutting 300 people from the workforce, closing projects that lacked promise and reducing some employee benefits.