Internet giant Google has reported a large rise in profits in the three months to September.

互联网巨头谷歌第三季度利润大幅度增长。

The search engine said net income in the third quarter surged 26% to $2.73bn (£1.74bn), up from $2.17bn in the same period last year.

Earlier this year, Google launched Google+, a social network to take on Facebook.

"People are flocking into Google+ at an incredible rate," said Google head Larry Page.

The profits were well ahead of market expectations, and shares in the company rose 6% in trading after the market closed.

"The real interesting thing here is the expenses weren't as high as the Street was anticipating," said UBS analyst¹ Brian Pitz. "This is the fourth quarter in a row the company has accelerated their revenue on top line."

Revenue rose 33% to $9.72bn - just shy of having a quarterly turnover² of $10bn.

Mr Page, a co-founder of the company, replaced Eric Schmidt as CEO in April.

"We had a great quarter," he said. "Google+ is now open to everyone and we just passed the 40 million-user mark."

Facebook, around since 2004, has around 800 million users.

As well as generating money through advertising³ based on search, Google also makes the popular Android mobile phone operating system.