Demand Media beat Wall Street expectations in the third quarter, posting a loss of five cents a share. Investors had expected it to lose from four to six cents.

Revenue was up 25 percent to $85.1 million, compared to $65.4 million in the same period a year ago. Minus traffic acquisition costs, sales increased 26 percent to $78.1 million from $62.2 million.

The stock of the Santa Monica, Calif., social content company has suffered in the quarter due to worries about its traffic and growth, but it has recently bounced back after hitting all-time lows.

After losing almost nine percent today, in profit-taking ahead of earnings after a recent price surge, Demand shares rose over 17 percent in after-hours trading to $8.30.

Some more details, according to a Demand statement on the Q3 financial results:

Content & Media Revenue increased 27% to $50.7 million, compared with $39.8 million in Q310.

Traffic acquisition costs (TAC), which represent the portion of Content & Media revenue shared with Demand Media partners, of $3.4 million, or 6.7% of Content & Media revenue, compared with $3.2 million, or 7.9% of Content & Media revenue, in Q310.

Content & Media Revenue ex-TAC grew 29% to $47.4 million, from $36.7 million in Q310.

Registrar Revenue increased 20% to $30.7 million compared with $25.5 million in Q310.

In addition to its more high-profile content business, Demand also has a domain registry unit.

“We reported another strong quarter as we continue to build Demand Media’s foundation for long-term growth,” said Richard Rosenblatt, Chairman and CEO of Demand Media in the statement. “The Company is uniquely positioned to deliver data-driven professional content through its robust content publishing platform. We are now in the process of optimizing that platform while increasing our investment in video content and enhancing the quality, engagement and user experience of our sites.”

There will be a conference call at 2 pm PT today, which I will liveblog (as long as it is lively!).

Until then, enjoy the official Q3 earnings press release:

3Q11 Earnings ReleaseFINAL

It is now set for late spring, although the post specified no specific date.

Why?

Facebook said it was due to feedback the company had gotten from its legions of developers who rely on the Facebook universe for their oxygen.

“We’re still iterating on the design, making sure we get it right. We’ll still continue to roll out improvements to Platform as well,” wrote Pete Bratach of Facebook. “And rest assured, we will give you a period of time so you can update your applications before the profile is released to our users.”

Well, phew, as some big developers have been grumbling to me a lot of late about their many worries about the new look, which is sure to confound them, and more importantly, users no matter how good it is.

“They really have to roll this out perfectly,” said one big Facebook widget maker. “It really is the biggest thing since Beacon, and you know how that went.”

Indeed, the controversial ad program was not the smoothest moment for the social-networking site. But making big changes to what is the heart-and-soul of Facebook is a quantum level of difficulty higher.

It will require almost perfect execution technically speaking, huge educational efforts early and often for users and a total buy-in from third-party developers, whom Facebook made integral to its success when it made the very sharp move of opening its platform to them.

But don’t feel pressured Mark and Sheryl!

You can see some of the previews on this Facebook Previews page here and in the screenshot picture below (click on the image to make it larger).

And, as an added attraction for those developers, here is a video of the lovely Anna Nalik singing her hit, “Breathe,” in an even better “Grey’s Anatomy” video (I am a complete sucker for cheese):