nwelsh - 9:44 pm on Apr 14, 2011 (gmt 0)

Interesting turn of events.
[marketwatch.com...]

[investor.google.com...]

• Paid Clicks – Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 18% over the first quarter of 2010 and increased approximately 4% over the fourth quarter of 2010.
  
  
• Cost-Per-Click – Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 8% over the first quarter of 2010 and decreased approximately 1% over the fourth quarter of 2010.
  
  
• TAC – Traffic Acquisition Costs, the portion of revenues shared with Google’s partners, increased to $2.04 billion in the first quarter of 2011, compared to TAC of $1.71 billion in the first quarter of 2010. TAC as a percentage of advertising revenues was 25% in the first quarter of 2011, compared to 26% in the first quarter of 2010.
  
  The majority of TAC is related to amounts ultimately paid to our AdSense partners, which totaled $1.70 billion in the first quarter of 2011. TAC also includes amounts ultimately paid to certain distribution partners and others who direct traffic to our website, which totaled $337 million in the first quarter of 2011.