Google money machine tops self by 32%

The Google money machine continued to crank out the dollars in third quarter, as revenues leapt 23 per cent from the same period last year.

Revenues reached $7.29bn for the quarter, and though a majority of these dollars still come from the company's bread-and-butter search ads, Google played up its revenues from other sources in a way it never has before.

On a conference call with reporters, according to multiple sources, the company said that it's on pace to collect $2.5bn a year in revenue from display ads and $1bn a year from mobile handsets.

Google did not say how much YouTube is on pace to make, but it did reveal that the company is "monetizing" two billion video views on the site each week.

"Google had an excellent quarter," read a canned statement from Google chief executive Eric Schmidt. "Our core business grew very well, and our newer businesses - particularly display and mobile - continued to show significant momentum."

But again, the big dollars come from the usual sources. Google-owned sites pulled in revenues of $4.83bn, or 67 per cent of total revenue, while its network of sites displaying ads from its AdSense program $2.20 billion, or 30 per cent of total revenue. Aggregate paid clicks jumped 16 per cent from last year, and the average cost per click climbed three per cent.

Total profits for the third quarter reached $2.17bn, a 32 per cent increase from a year ago. ®