Google profit up 41%, but short of forecasts

San Francisco - Google on Thursday reported that its profit in the recently ended quarter jumped, but the leap fell short of market expectations.

The internet colossus reported net profit up 41% from last year at $4.76bn in the final three months of 2014.

Revenues were up 15% in the quarter to $18.1bn, also slower that anticipated as Google saw slowdowns in some of its online advertising metrics such as costs per click.

Google shares fell 1.7% in after-hours trading on the news.

Even though Google is the leader in online advertising and search, it faces increased competition and has been diversifying in services and investing in projects such as Google Glass and self-driving cars.