George Reyes

In recent weeks, Google has made much of its problems with China. But it turns out the company has a much bigger problem with Italy.

In what Google called an "astonishing decision," an Italian court convicted three Google executives of privacy invasion for a 2006 video of Italian teenagers taunting and abusing a boy with Downs syndrome. They were acquitted of defamation charges.

Google posted revenues of $5.19 billion for the year's first quarter -- an increase of 42 percent compared to one year earlier and a seven percent rise from the prior quarter. By contrast, the company's traffic-acquisition costs amounted to only $1.49 billion, or 29 percent of advertising revenues, company executives said.

The search giant's ongoing innovation in search, ads and apps helped drive healthy growth globally across its product lines, noted Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt.