Facebook closes gap with Google after strong results in Q4

Facebook is growing at an exceptional pace as it enters adolescence, propelling it into a better position to challenge Google as the Internet's most powerful company.

Facebook's fourth-quarter report Wednesday provided the latest gauge of the company's impressive strides.

It marked the first time that Facebook's quarterly revenue has surpassed $5 billion more than fading Internet star Yahoo now generates in an entire year. Facebook's earnings also more than doubled to $1.56 billion, even as the Menlo Park, California, company invests heavily in virtual reality, artificial intelligence, Internet access in remote parts of the world and a mobile ad network for services other than its own.