For the first time in months, comScore's report on Google's paid click performance contains good news, reports Fortune.

Facing previously dire comScore stats, investors had begun worrying about Google's vulnerability to economic woe.

Google's paid clicks rose 19.6 percent in April, compared to the same period in 2007, bucking the trend of negative or flat growth been reported for the first three months of this year.

Yahoo's figures were not as promising. Paid clicks in April dropped 4.4 percent compared to 2007. The data also represents a change in trend from Q1 figures. In the first couple months of 2008, Yahoo's paid click-through actually rose.

Microsoft fared worst, with a fall of nine percent from last year.

Like Google, AOL saw paid clicks spike upwards. April 2008 numbers were over 28 percent better than the same month in 2007. This is good news for the company, which continues to pursue advertising as a growth strategy growth while it shifts away from its old paid access model.