Buoyed by higher prices paid for its online advertising, Google Inc. on Thursday reported first quarter net income of $2.30 billion, with earnings of $7.04 a share, up from $1.96 billion, or $6.06 a share in the same period last year. Mountain View-based Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) had $8.58 billion in revenue, a 27 percent increase over the year-ago quarter. Excluding items, Google would have earned $2.64 billion, or $8.08 a share, compared to $2.18 billion, or $6.76 a share. Google-owned sites generated revenue of...