DigitMemo.com

Google reported a 46 percent rise in profit that topped Wall Street expectations, fueled by accelerating market share gains and tighter cost controls.

Third-quarter net income rose to $1.07 billion, or $3.38 per diluted share, compared with the year-earlier quarter’s $733.3 million, or $2.36 per diluted share. Excluding one-time items, profit was $3.91 per share in the latest quarter.

Gross revenue rose 57 percent to $4.23 billion.

Shares of Google rose about 1 percent. The stock climbed to $645.18 from a close of $639.62 on Nasdaq.

Wall Street was looking for a net profit, on average, of $3.22 per share, according to Reuters Estimates. Excluding one-time items and stock compensation costs, the average analyst estimate was $3.77 per share.

Analysts, on average, expected quarterly revenue to grow 54 percent from a year ago to $4.13 billion. Ever-larger numbers mean its growth rate is down from 70 percent in the third quarter of 2006 and 96 percent in the same period of 2005.

Google led the U.S. Web search business with 57 percent market share in September, up from 56.5 percent in August, according to Comscore Inc data. It is even more dominant internationally, with more than 70 percent of the audience for Web searches.