Only 52% growth?
Hard knocks hit Google.

Google dealt with unfamiliar territory yesterday: failing to meet increasingly ambitious expectations for quarterly profits.

Net income for the fourth quarter of 2007 was up 12 percent from the same time in 2006, hitting $1.21 billion. Revenue increased 51 percent, with total revenue reaching $4.23 billion.

Revenue from Google's own sites accounted for 65 percent of the take, with revenue from partners such as AOL and others bringing in 34 percent of the total. Advertising accounted for 99 percent of all revenue.

Sales growth totaled 52 percent, which left investors nonplussed, Bloomberg said. The company is also struggling with monetizing search ad inventory on social networking sites like MySpace. Co-founder Larry Page says the company is still trying to make sense of what does and doesn't work on these sites.

Last week Google released demographic bidding for AdWords, part of an effort to leverage the social networking data available to it.

Page also said new ad formats may augment YouTube in the not too distant future. The company is also working on streamlining existing YouTube offerings to make the buying process simpler.