Google reap

Google has an enduring mobile harvest to reap

Google's mobile harvest will provide for a long time to come. The search company's latest quarterly results show it has hit its smartphone stride. Once again, paid clicks grew strongly and the revenue per click fell less that it had in the three months. That's good, because high profile efforts like Google Glass and Fiber aren't going to deliver profits soon.

Revenue was rather pedestrian compared to what Google is used to, with an increase of 31 per cent from the same quarter last year. Earnings per share jumped 14 per cent. The more important takeaway, though, is this growth is likely to continue for many quarters.

Mobile devices continue to proliferate. That means more searches will be made. Paid clicks at Google were up by a fifth. There's a downside. These searches aren't as profitable - the price of a mobile ad is about half as much as a desktop one. That's why Google's revenue per click fell 4 percent compared to last year. But the gap appears to be closing as this marks the sixth quarter in a row the figure has fallen. Since mobile ads should be as useful as desktop ones - advertisers want to reach and track customers on the go - the price difference between the two should keep on narrowing.

All of this is becoming rather predictable, which may explain why prospects for Google's new projects attract such enthusiasm. This needs to be tempered. Take Verizon, for example. The phone company spent well over $20 billion laying fiber, but investors were thankful when the company scaled back its ambitions. Translate that to products like geeky Internet-enabled glasses. It's hard to imagine there will be a huge market for such devices. Self-driving cars - another Google favorite - face legal issues galore.

Granted, any of these or other side projects could yet turn into another Google cash cow. But with the stock trading at 17 times estimated earnings and the mobile business growing comfortably for some time yet, Google and investors can afford to wait.