Google almost doubled its quarterly profit and saw revenue rise by 70 per cent amid growth on company-owned websites and overseas.
Its shares rose 8 per cent as the California- based company topped Wall Street's consensus expectations. That left the stock, which had a lacklustre first half of 2006, up 11 per cent for the year and in striking distance of a record.
Google websites, such as Google.com and Google News, helped power growth, while foreign markets rose to 44 per cent of revenue from 39 per cent a year earlier as the company gained in countries such as Britain and Germany.
Net income for the third quarter rose 92 per cent to $733.4 million, or $2.36 per diluted share. Analysts had been looking for a net profit, on average, of $2.13 per share.
"I don't see an obvious ceiling" to growth, Sergey Brin, co-founder and president, told investors on a conference call, adding that Google sees new opportunities in video and other categories of advertising beyond its core text-ad business.
Gross revenue rose 70 per cent to $2.69 billion, topping the average Wall Street forecast of $2.62 billion.
Google's growth rate is two to three times faster than its Internet peers: Ebay, at 31 per cent; Yahoo, at 19 per cent; and Microsoft, at about 10 per cent.