San Francisco, July 17 (DPA) Web search giant Google reported a 19-percent increase in profits as cost cutting made up for a decline in online ad spending due to the recession.

Profits rose 19 per cent to $1.48 billion from $1.25 billion a year ago. Revenue rose just 2.9 percent, down from 6.2-percent growth in the first quarter. Excluding sales passed on to partner sites, second-quarter revenue rose to $4.07 billion from $3.9 billion.

'Google had a very good quarter, especially given the continued macro-economic downturn,' chief executive Eric Schmidt said in a statement.