Google: What Economic Crisis?

Investors concerned about Google’s performance in the current economic slump set their Mylanta aside this afternoon after the company reported third-quarter earnings that beat expectations. Excluding one-time items, Google (GOOG) earned $4.92 a share in the third quarter on revenues of $4.04 billion. Analysts had expected earnings of $4.75 a share on revenue of $4.053 billion.

“We had a good third quarter with strong traffic and revenue growth across all of our major geographies thanks to the underlying strength of our core search and ads business. The measurability and ROI of search-based advertising remain key assets for Google,” CEO Eric Schmidt said in a statement. “While we are realistic about the poor state of the global economy, we will continue to manage Google for the long term, driving improvements to search and ads, while also investing in future growth areas such as enterprise, mobile, and display.”

Google shares rose some 8 percent in extended trading following the news.