Google parent Alphabet reported a significant surge in search revenue for Q3, earning US$26.3 billion from advertisers. This exceeds the US$24.7 billion the company earned from Google search ads in the same quarter last year. This is a significant rebound for the company, whose advertising revenues were deeply impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, it's worth keeping in mind that the bulk of digital advertising revenue comes from Europe and North America, where the economies are more or less stable, and so this may not necessarily be pointing to economic recovery in other countries like India. However, these results came under the shadow of the Department of Justice's antitrust complaint against Google, which could have significant ramifications for the company. "We believe that our products are creating significant consumer benefits and will confidently make our case. Our company's focus remains on continuing our work to build a search product that people love and value," Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai said. "Hybrid" work environment leading to cloud growth: The demand for "hybrid" work environments is leading to growth in Google Cloud demand, which has grown from US$1.83 billion to US$2.77 billion year-over-year. This essentially means that Google Cloud (and Google Workspace, formerly GSuite) are in higher demand as more companies try to make their policies work-from-home friendly. Regulatory risk: In an SEC filing, the prognosis was a bit grimmer than Pichai's remarks: "Prior, existing, and new investigations and regulatory actions have in the past and may in the future result…
