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Google earned a record $7.5 billion in the third quarter, and announced that its three-month-old Google+ social network now has 40 million users. That's a big increase from the 10 million users Google+ had at the end of Google's last quarter, when it remained in a "limited" trial phase. The network opened to the public in late September.  In an earnings release late Thursday, Google said it earned $9.72 per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast earnings of $8.74 per share.  Investors are looking to Google's advertising figures as a barometer of the overall economy, and the numbers were good -- though the cost-per-click increase was not as high as it was last quarter. Profit rose as both the number of clicks on Google's ads and the amount that advertising partners pay per click increased.  Paid clicks rose 28% and cost per click ticked up 5% compared to last year. Sales for the Mountain View, Calif., company rose 33% over the yea...

The world's most demanded and user-friendly Internet search leader Google Inc is not building a social network to compete with Facebook, a company executive reiterated on Thursday, despite an intensifying rivalry between the two leading Internet groups. "We're not working on a social network platform that's just going to be another social network platform," Google's head of mobile product development, Hugo Barra, said in answer to a question at the Monaco Media Forum. "We do think that social networking is an ingredient for success for any application going forward, search and advertising being probably the best two examples that I would mention. So that's how we're thinking about the problem." Social networking has exploded in popularity and begun to reshape the balance of power in the Web industry. Facebook, launched in 2004, has more than 500 million members. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in September the company intended to...