NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Google Inc. reported a quarterly profit and sales on Thursday that rose from year-ago results and handily beat Wall Street's forecasts.

The world's online search leader said its net income in the second quarter rose to $2.5 billion, up 36% from a year earlier.

Results included one-time charges totaling $1.06 per share. Without the charges, Google said it earned $8.74 per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, who typically exclude one-time items from their estimates, had forecast earnings of $7.85 per share.

Profit rose as both the number of clicks on Google's ads and the amount that advertising partners pay per click increased substantially: Paid clicks surged 18% and cost per click grew 12% compared to last year.

Sales for the Mountain View, Calif., company rose 32% to $9 billion. Excluding advertising sales that Google shares with partners, a figure also known as traffic acquisition costs, the company reported revenue of $6.9 billion, which topped analysts' forecasts of $6.6 billion.

"We had a great quarter," Larry Page, Google's CEO, said in a written statement. "I'm super excited about the amazing response to Google+ which lets you share just like in real life."

Shares of Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) jumped 12% after hours.

Google also continued its hiring spree in the second quarter, upping its headcount by nearly 9%, or 2,500 employees -- including 450 from the acquisition of flight data company ITA .

The company also has spent freely, putting more than $900 million into its infrastructure during the quarter, including expanding its massive data centers. The company has said it expects to continue to make "significant" capital expenditures going forward, which has made some stock analysts cautious.

But Google says all that spending will keep the company ahead of its rivals.

The past quarter has been a busy one. Google unveiled its Facebook competitor Google+, started selling its Chromebook line of laptopsaimed at current Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) corporate clients, and launched its Music application to compete with Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) iTunes and Amazon's (AMZN, Fortune 500) Cloud Drive.

Not all the news has been positive: Google also landed in antitrust crosshairs.

The Federal Trade Commission began investigating the company for evidence of abusive practices, and a federal judge rejected Google's planned settlement deal in its attempt to create a universal online book library.

The Department of Justice also heavily scrutinized the company's recent purchase of flight data software company ITA, and Google set aside $500 million for a potential settlement with the DOJ regarding the company's advertising practices. The DOJ is currently studying Google's proposed $400 million purchase of digital advertising toolmaker Admeld.

Late last month, French search company 1plusV said it would seek $423 million in damages from the American search giant over alleged anticompetitive practices.