While some bulked at the 1.65 billion dollars Google paid for YouTube, it seems that the price was a drop in the ocean.

Google has today announced its profits for its third quarter have almost doubled on the back of strong advertising sales.

During the three months until the end of September, its net income was $733m (£390m), a 92% increase on the $381m it made in the same time last year.

With advertising sales soaring, Google's revenues rose 70% from a year ago to $2.7bn.

"Our third quarter results are a testament to the strength of our network of advertisers and partners, as well as our continuing focus on users", said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google.

The main bulk of the profit comes from Google's own sites, which generated revenues of $1.63 billion, or 60% of total revenues, in the third quarter of 2006. This represents an 84% increase over third quarter 2005 revenues of $885 million and a 14% increase over second quarter 2006 revenues of $1.43 billion.

That still didn't stop Google's partner sites, which include Pocket-lint.co.uk, generating revenues through AdSense programs, of $1.04 billion, or 39% of total revenues, in the third quarter of 2006. This is a 54% increase over network revenues of $675 million generated in the third quarter of 2005 and a 4% increase over second quarter 2006 revenues of $997 million.

Revenues from outside of the United States contributed 44% of total revenues in the third quarter of 2006, compared to 42% in the second quarter of 2006 and 39% in the third quarter of 2005. Had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the second quarter through the third quarter of 2006, Google has said its revenues in the third quarter of 2006 would have been $19 million lower.

The overall end results means Google still has a whopping $10.4 billion bank.