- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Israel pounds Lebanon ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Toddler among 4 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
- Five of the best: Pakistan-England Test thrillers
- Man sets arm on fire as marches across US mark Gaza war anniversary
- Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution
- Trump rallies at site of failed assassination: 'Never quit'
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- Is music finally reckoning with #MeToo?
- Fans hail Trump's 'guts' as he returns to site of rally shooting
- Lebanon state media says 'very violent' Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Guardians maul Tigers, miracle Mets rally in MLB series openers
- Lebanon state media says Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Miami on track for MLS record points after win in Toronto
- Madrid beat Villarreal but Carvajal suffers knee injury
- Madrid beat Villarreal to move level with Liga leaders Barcelona
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- French rugby player on rape charge whistled but 'serene' on return
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Toddler among 3 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Kovacic stars as Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
Google-parent Alphabet sees quarterly profit slip
Shares in Google's parent company Alphabet sank Tuesday after the internet giant reported that earnings in the recently ended quarter missed market expectations, with profit down from a year earlier.
Alphabet reported net income of $16.4 billion in the first quarter on revenue that climbed 23 percent to $68 billion when compared to the same period last year. Alphabet profit was $17.9 billion in the first quarter of 2021.
Shares sank nearly five percent to $2,257 on the news.
The quarter brought strong growth in Alphabet's search and cloud computing businesses while the company continued to invest heavily in products and services, chief executive Sundar Pichai said in an earnings release.
While Alphabet saw revenue from online ads climb to more than $46 billion, the cost of acquiring online "traffic" that helps fuel that income was up some $2 billion from the same period a year ago, the earnings report showed.
Alphabet's ranks of employees grew to just shy of 164,000 people from 140,000 people in the same quarter last year.
The Silicon Valley titan also continued to pour money into data centers and parts of its operations that power its cloud computing services.
"We are pleased with Q1 revenue growth of 23% year over year," said Alphabet chief financial officer Ruth Porat.
"We continue to make considered investments in Capex, (research and development) and talent to support long-term value creation for all stakeholders."
- YouTube squeeze -
Insider Intelligence principal analyst Paul Verna told AFP that while Google's search business remained a "bright spot" at the company, earnings at video-sharing website YouTube were "a big miss."
"TikTok has become a significant competitive threat," Verna said of the pressure on YouTube.
"On the connected television side, there is a lot of competition from other platforms that have entered the space."
Alphabet is also dealing with challenges facing the broader market, such as inflation that has advertisers more carefully minding marketing budgets, Verna said.
The tech firm is also dealing with "natural consequences" of coming out of a pandemic that boosted online activity to degrees not truly sustainable, the analyst added.
"In that light. I don't think today's results are disastrous by any means," Verna said.
Alphabet remains a market leader in search and strong in video, he said, "but there's just a saturation limit to growth."
- Privacy labels -
Meanwhile, Alphabet put out word Tuesday that it was adding labels to apps available at its Play Store to let users of Android-powered mobile devices see what kinds of data is collected about their activities.
"Users want to know for what purpose their data is being collected and whether the developer is sharing user data with third parties," Android privacy product vice president Suzanne Frey said in a blog post.
"That's why we designed the Data safety section to allow developers to clearly mark what data is being collected and for what purpose it's being used."
Google last week announced it was starting to roll out an option for European users to reject "cookies" with a single click, months after it was slapped with a massive fine.
Google, along with Facebook, has faced an onslaught of legal cases and punishments over its use of web-tracking technology, which breaches EU privacy legislation.
Cookies are packets of data installed on a user's computer that allow browsers to save information about their session.
"We have completely overhauled our approach, including changing the infrastructure we use to manage cookies," the US giant wrote in a blog post.
Google committed to changing its practices after French data watchdog CNIL slapped it with a 150-million-euro ($162 million) fine in January.
O.Norris--AMWN