March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., owner of the world’s most popular Internet search engine, will eliminate about 200 jobs in its sales and marketing operations as the recession weighs on revenue growth.

The cuts will affect workers globally, Google said in a blog posting today. Employees will have a chance to find other positions within the company. There are no plans for further cuts, spokesman Matt Furman said.

Google is curbing costs as businesses reduce spending on online advertising, its main revenue source. The company announced plans in January to cut about 100 recruiting jobs, followed in February by the closure of its radio-programming business, eliminating as many as 40 jobs. The latest cuts will help Google simplify decision making, after years of expansion created bureaucracy, spokesman Matt Furman said.

“It was getting hard to get things done quickly and efficiently,” Furman said. “At the same time, we were over- invested in some areas. Those investments were based on assumptions about economic growth that made sense at the time, but don’t anymore.”

The company continues to hire at a reduced rate, targeting specific job roles, he said.

Finding Religion

“Google’s growing financial and operational discipline should be positive for revenue growth and margins,” Youssef Squali, an analyst with Jefferies & Co. in New York, said today in a research note prior to the job-cut announcement. “We are encouraged by the company’s newfound ‘religion.’”

The latest round of cuts will affect about 1 percent of the workforce. Google had more than 20,000 employees at the end of last year. The company had already slowed hiring in the fourth quarter -- adding about 100 people, compared with about 500 in the third quarter.

“Google has grown very quickly in a very short period of time,” Omid Kordestani, senior vice president of global sales and business development, said in the blog posting. “When companies grow that quickly, it’s almost impossible to get everything right -- and we certainly didn’t.”

Google, based in Mountain View, California, rose $9.22, or 2.7 percent, to $353.29 today on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has climbed 15 percent this year.

Chief Financial officer Patrick Pichette said last month the company had trimmed spending by avoiding luxuries such as business-class flights. Still, Google will continue to offer some of its famous perks, such as free meals, because they foster good communication among employees, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Womack in San Francisco at bwomack1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 26, 2009 17:56 EDT