Internet search giant Google Inc. on Thursday announced better-than-expected fourth-quarter as advertising market has started retuning to normal after recession.

Google pocketed a profit of 1.97 billion dollars during the three months to December 2009, up from 382 million dollars in the year earlier period, when it took charges of 1.09 billion dollars related to its investment.

Revenues surged to settle at 6.67 billion dollars, representing an increase of 17 per cent from the same period of previous year.

Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt, “Given that the global economy is still in the early days of recovery, this was an extraordinary end to the year.”

Revenue from outside the US stood at 3.5 billion dollars, accounting for 53 per cent of company’s total revenue as compared with 50 per cent in the year ago period.

Google’s fourth quarter results indicate improvement in overall online advertising market.

Despite the announcement of robust fourth-quarter results, company’s stock price tumbled by around 4.6 per cent to $556.10 in after-hours trading.