SAN FRANCISCO -- Google Inc.'s first-quarter profit surged to a nearly six-fold improvement as the online search engine leader continued to surpass the bullish expectations for its high-flying stock.

The Mountain View-based company said Thursday that it earned $369.2 million, or $1.29 per share, for the three months ended in March. That compared with net income of $64 million, or 24 cents per share, at the same time last year.

Revenue totaled $1.26 billion, nearly doubling from $651.6 million at the same time last year. After subtracting commissions that Google paid to other Web sites in its advertising network, the company's revenue was $794.5 million.

If not for a charge to account for stock options that Google awarded its workers before going public last August, the company's earnings would have ranged between $1.39 to $1.46 per share.

By any measure, Google's earnings easily topped the 92 cents per share forecast by analysts in a Thomson Financial survey.

Google's earnings have soared past analyst estimates in all three quarters since the company completed its much-anticipated initial public offering of stock eight months ago.

That IPO, priced at $85 per share, generated the most investor excitement since the dot-com boom, amplifying the pressure on Google to continue the rapid financial growth that helped make it a hot commodity in the first place.

Although Google management expressed little interest in pleasing Wall Street, the company's stellar financial performance has been creating even more enthusiasm about its prospects.

"Google is an amazing place," company CEO Eric Schmidt said during a Thursday interview. "I see no sign of things slowing down."

The company announced its latest quarterly results after the stock market closed Thursday. Google's shares gained $6.12, or 3.1 percent, to close at $204.22 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, then surged another $19.12, or 9.4 percent, in extended trading.

If the stock reacts similarly when trading opens Friday, Google's shares would climb to a new high, exceeding the $216.80 reached shortly after the company announced its earnings for the final quarter of 2004.

Google makes virtually all of its money from the text-based ads that are tied to online search requests. The company gets paid each time one of the links are clicked upon on Google's home page or hundreds of other sites that display the ads.

The text-based ads, which are priced using an online auction system, are becoming more expensive. Advertisers bid an average of $1.75 per click in March, a 6 percent increase from February, according to Fathom Online, a research firm.

The online advertising boom is enriching many Internet companies, but none are benefiting more than Google and Yahoo, which operate the Web's most popular search engines. Google is by far larger, processing 2.06 billion search requests in March compared with 907 million for Yahoo Inc., according to Nielsen/NetRatings, an Internet research firm.

The heavier search volume has helped make Google more profitable than Sunnyvale-based Yahoo, a slightly older company with twice as many employees. Yahoo earned $204.6 million on revenue of $1.17 billion during its first quarter.

Google may have other advantages besides its larger market share.

Many analysts believe Google has devised a better formula for deciding which ads are most closely related to a search request, resulting in more revenue-producing clicks.

Google also is making more money internationally. The company generated 39 percent of its revenue overseas in the first quarter.

"I am particularly proud of our sound execution during this period of very rapid growth," Schmidt told analysts during a Thursday conference call.