The reasons for the profit drop include a jump in the cost of restricted stock units in the first quarter, as well as higher datacenterconstruction and marketing costs.
During 2009, Google had sufficient datacenter capacity and opted to delay the construction of a planned datacenter in Pryor, OK. The company mentioned in its earnings that it is very satisfied with its 2009 cap ex and plans to remain disciplined going forward.
If you can do more work with fewer servers and less power, it may be possible to extend the life of a datacenter and avoid capital intensive construction.