Google announced earnings last night, the earnings reported that revenues were down from the previous quarter. Let me quote the announcement:

Profits were slightly up, however, from quarter to quarter:

There are two threads on the discussion of Google’s earnings report, one at WebmasterWorld and the other at DigitalPoint Forums.

Another WebmasterWorld thread specifically focuses on the AdSense/publisher side of the coin. The payouts to publishers from quarter to quarter is summarized in the thread:

Q109 1.23 billionQ408 1.29 billionQ308 1.33 billionQ208 1.32 billionQ108 1.34 billionQ407 1.31 billionQ307 1.12 billionQ207 1.06 billionQ107 1.05 billionQ406 0.92 billionQ306 0.78 billion

Many suspect that Google is paying publishers less of a percentage, but it is hard to prove that from the earnings report.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.