Search engine giant, Google, says the “worst of the recession is behind us.”

Google has reported a 7% rise in third quarter revenues, reporting a record $1.6 billion (£1bn) net income, compared to just $1.3bn for the same period in 2008.

Revenue for the quarter was $4.38bn, which was ahead of analysts’ expectations of around $1.3bn.

A large amount of revenue comes from inside the US, where Google is headquartered; however, UK revenue also contributed a healthy amount, with a percentage share of 13% for the quarter.

Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, said: “Google had a strong quarter – we saw 7% year-over-year revenue growth despite the tough economic conditions.

“While there is a lot of uncertainty about the pace of economic recovery, we believe the worst of the recession is behind us and now feel confident about investing heavily in our future.”

One of the big winners for Google in the three months to 30 September 2009 was its revenue through its partner sites, which through AdSense, raised $1.8bn, or 30% of total revenues, and Google-owned sites, which generated revenues of $3.96bn, or 67% of total revenues. These represent increases of 7% and 8% respectively compared to 2008.

Earlier this week, the search engine announced that Arthur Levinson has resigned from his position on Google’s Board of Directors with immediate effect. Levinson is also on the board of Apple, and reports suggest this is the reason for the announcement as the two companies have become increasingly competitive in recent years. Google CEO Schmidt, quit his role on the Apple board two months ago, citing similar reasons.

Google employs nearly 20,000 full-time workers across its worldwide base, and is highly regarded as the number one search engine globally.

Its shares rose by 20 points on the Nasdaq stock exchange today.