The results show that on the Web, size matters. Since Yahoo reaches so many people, second only to America Online, it can charge advertisers more. And it shows Yahoo's success at playing to two audiences at once: the first-time computer buyer and the veteran Web surfer looking to start a home page with customized features.

"We're getting a disproportionate share of new users" through alliances in the March quarter with such computer sellers as IBM, Gateway and Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo President Jeff Mallett said. "We continue to roll out a slew of new services, like auctions and shopping, so our current users had more to consume."

Yahoo executives said Wednesday that they will continue to use the company's highflying shares to buy other firms with Web expertise, as they did in two multibillion-dollar acquisitions announced this year. Yahoo said in January it would buy GeoCities, a Web-page builder, and last week announced that it would buy Broadcast.com, which plays radio and other audio and video programming over the Web. Results from those companies weren't included in the quarter's results.