It’s shaping up to be a good year for Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Considering they co-founded one of the world’s most successful businesses and they’re both under 40, this is probably no surprise, but it marks the end of a shaky couple of months for the online dream team. 

Not only has their business, search powerhouse Google, recently acquired online ad firm Doubleclick, (lengthening its reach into the display ad market and making Microsoft all the more eager to buy Yahoo) the search engine giant has now reported 10-figure profits for the first quarter of 2008. Favoured by just under 60% of the world’s online community, the market-leading search engine netted $1.31bn between January and March. That’s up 30% on the previous quarter and 42% on a year ago. Revenue was $5.1bn.

What makes it all the better for Brin and Page is it quashes rumours the firm has faced an advertising slump. At the height of its success last year, shares in Google were being sold for $741.80, but the price has been tumbling amid concerns that its ad revenues have suffered a blow from the credit crunch, particularly in the US. According to the BBC, recent research suggested fewer users were clicking on the sponsored links, a massive revenue stream for the firm, which painted a worrying picture of consumers watching the pennies a little more carefully. 

But, at a time of widespread concern about the economy, its market-beating results and soaring profits fly in the face of rumours that businesses’ online ad spend is falling. Recent figures suggest that UK companies spent around £2.8bn advertising online last year, of which around half went through Google, meaning its revenue has got to be a pretty reliable signifier of the state of the market.  Its international business has grown significantly, now accounting for 55% of sales, and the search engine has made £407m profit in the UK alone so far this year, which again is 40% up on this time last year.

If its revenue and profits are soaring, it suggests online marketing activity has so far absorbed the hit from the credit crunch, which can only be a good thing.