Google co-founder says penny-pinchers fuel results

By Eric Auchard

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc is enjoying broad growth across industries and around the world but its advertising business remains vulnerable if the economy continues to suffer, a company co-founder said on Thursday.

"To the extent that everybody starts spending a lot less, I don't think we are necessarily immune," said Sergey Brin, who co-founded the Web search and advertising leader a decade ago.

"I don't think any company is immune to a total bust," he said.

But Brin said his company continues to benefit as advertisers shift spending online and from its pay-per-click ad format, which helps marketers measure their results.

"We do think we are particularly attuned to advertisers who are counting their pennies very carefully," Brin told Reuters in an interview following the company's announcement of better-than-expected results for the third quarter.

Many commentators say the current global financial crisis is the worst since the Great Depression, and Brin acknowledged that Google's attractiveness as an "advertiser of last resort" only protects the business so far.

"We are going to see definitely some fluctuations. I think some sectors are going to do better than others; some geographies are doing to do better than others," Brin said of how advertising spending could change in different markets.

He declined to say which sectors may be vulnerable or elaborate on how Google's advertising business aimed at the hard-pressed auto, financial services, travel or retail markets has held up in recent weeks.

Earlier, on a conference call to discuss its latest results, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt declared "We are all in uncharted territory now," as he described the uncertainty that has seized the global economy over the past month.

Schmidt also sought to reassure investors by saying that consumer search activity continues to climb across virtually all industry categories. Google makes money by selling targeted advertisements alongside its search results.

Google is "very realistic about the macro environment, but we are optimistic about Google's future," Schmidt told investors.

(Editing by Bernard Orr)