Two underperforming Internet giants -- Google (GOOGL - Analyst Report) and Amazon (AMZN - Analyst Report) -- posted Q4 earnings after the closing bell Thursday, with differing results. Search leader Google posted light results on both top and bottom lines: $14.48 billion in revenues (including traffic acquisition costs, or TAC) led to earnings per share (EPS) of $5.50. Online superstore Amazon brought in $29.33 billion on earnings of 45 cents per share.

Google has now posted a fifth straight EPS miss -- down from the $5.86 expected -- and its sales in the quarter were 14 percent down from its previous quarter. Converting a bulk of its business from desktop PCs to mobile search is no doubt taking a bite out of Google's top-line, though as Facebook (FB) clearly demonstrated yesterday after the close, mobile is certainly the way to go. Google shares are trading down following the report approximately 2 percent in the late market, and had already been down roughly 4.5 percent over the past month.

Amazon is faring better among after-market traders, as its bottom-line beat seems to have captured traders' attention. This is especially true considering the earnings surprise average of Amazon's previous four quarters was -40.4 percent. Typical of Jeff Bezos' company, however, the investment of revenues into an unexpected new foray -- in this case, $1.3 billion will be invested into instant video for Amazon Prime subscribers -- has many analysts sifting through the data scratching their heads a bit.

Still, a big beat is a big beat, and Amazon shares are up more than 7 percent in late trading. This is only the second beat in the last five quarters for Amazon, and the stock has already realized as much upside after posting earnings as it has made in the past month.