Google has upped its investment in IT infrastructure in the first quarter of 2010 compared to the preceding quarter.

The search giant reported on Thursday total capital expenditures of $239 million over the year's first three months, most of which was used on data centers, servers and networking gear.

This was an increase from the final quarter of 2009, when the company said it had spent $221 million for the same purposes.

The capital investment pales in comparison to revenue and income the company generated over the past three months, however.

Google's net income in for the quarter was $1.96 billion, an increase from $1.42 billion the company's various businesses created in 2009's final quarter.

The income was made on revenues of $6.77 billion - a 23-percent increase, sequentially.

The company's CFO Patrick Pichette said in a statement that revenue growth was driven by strong performance across all vertical and geographical markets it is involved in.

"Going forward, we remain committed to heavy investment in innovation -- both to spur future growth in our core and emerging businesses as well as to help build the future of the open Web."

Google said it spent $741 million, or 11 percent of revenue, on operating its data centers, amortization of intangible assets, content acquisitions and credit-card processing charges during the quarter.

In a conference call, Pichette commented on the company's recent decision to stop using its infrastructure in mainland China to process searches originating there, rerouting them through Hong Kong.

He said the company would not miss out on business opportunities in the Chinese market as a result of the move.

Google retained its engineering staff and sales force in China.

The decision was made after the Chinese government declined Google's request to stop censoring search results its Chinese search engine returned that the government felt threatened by.