Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) will be reporting its fourth quarter results today after the close of the market. Of course, the arguably hottest internet company will also be reporting on its overall fiscal year 2007 results as well. Normally, Google takes analyst expectations, smashes them to bits, and then acts like nothing happened. Will the search giant do the same thing this afternoon?

Google's shares have been shaken from a high of over $700 this past Christmas to under $543 today, as the company has joined in with the overall market teeter-totter amid continued housing worries and recession talk and FUD that spreads like wildfire every week. Will it recover some lost ground in after-hours trading if the company reports another standout quarter? Perhaps -- and it could lead to a tech stock recovery tomorrow in standard market-nuttiness fashion. Remember, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) had an excellent quarter as well just recently. As usual, the company's stock yawned and fell asleep.

Google is expected to report earnings of $4.45 per share on $3.45 billion revenue -- results any company in any industry would love to have. If Google once had dreams of a $900 share price, the company may never get there if results continue to match (or slightly surpass) analysts' expectations during 2008. Regardless, the company's leaders -- founders Sergey Brin, Larry Page and CEO Eric Schmidt -- will be around for a few decades to ride the company's potentially turbulent waves.

[DISCLOSURE: the author holds a long position in MSFT]

Google's Q1 results are in and it's been a whopper quarter. $3.66 billion in revenue and $1.22 billion in operating income. Those are numbers any company would be glad to have, right? Not only that, they blow way, way past earlier analyst revenue estimates of $2.49 billion.

Those number surpass analyst estimates that I covered in the preview post a few days back. What will Google have to say about its stellar performance? Stay tuned to the below liveblog and find out.

Remember to use the "Refresh" button on your web browser, as updates to this post will be happening every few minutes as the Q1 conference call moves forward. All times below are in EST. With that, let's roll.

4:30pm -- waiting for Google webcast to start.

4:33pm -- the webcast starts. All the disclaimers are being read. CEO Eric Schmidt takes the reigns and starts talking about how Google is "ecstatic" about its results.

Although Google Inc. (NADAQ: GOOG) remains the talk of the tech world, its stock hasn't inspired much confidence this year from investors, eking out only about a 1 percent gain. Maybe that will change following this week's earnings report.

Google remains seemingly unstoppable, dominating the Internet advertising landscape through its now-famous text ads which many companies are finding far more cost effective than traditional media.

Competitors Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) after several years, are still scrambling to catch up to Google. All of their investments, though, have yet to pay off. Market research data shows that Google increased its lead over its rivals yet again in March.

Google's acquisition of YouTube last year for $1.8 billion in stock and last week's acquisition of Internet advertising firm DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in cash is making the juggernaut even stronger. Add this with Google's deal with radio leader Clear Channel Communications Inc. (NYSE: CCU) announced Sunday and the company is getting its fingers into advertising in any medium.

While investors wait for Google to entrench itself into more advertising areas, industry analysts are expecting Google to report a 44% jump in its first-quarter profit to $3.30 a share this Thursday, with a 63% rise in revenue to $2.49 billion.

Will it match these expectations or beat them?

Check back Thursday at 4:30 EST to find out, as I'll be liveblogging Google's results as they are released in real-time.