After the earnings announcement, the company's shares fell 8 percent, closing at $695 a share. (Click here to get the latest quotes for Google.)

CEO Larry Page apologized on the company's earnings conference call and talked about the firm's "strong quarter."

Trading was halted shortly after the announcement at the company's request pending news. The company initially recovered some losses after resuming trading.

Following the earnings release surprise, Google issued a statement blaming its financial printer for the early release.

"Earlier this morning RR Donnelley, the financial printer, informed us that they had filed our draft 8K earnings statement without authorization. We have ceased trading on NASDAQ while we work to finalize the document. Once it's finalized we will release our earnings, resume trading on NASDAQ and hold our earnings call as normal at 1:30 PM PT, " the company said.