Google’s third-quarter revenue grew 20 percent, but slightly below Wall Street expectations, as growth slowed in the internet giants’s total number of money-making ads and expenses increased.

Shares of Google were down 2.7 per cent at $510.11 (€398.60) in extended trading yesterday.

Google posted $16.52 billion in revenue for the three months ending September 30th, compared with $13.75 billion in the same period a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S were looking for revenue of $16.57 billion in the latest quarter.

Google’s total number of ads, or its paid clicks, grew by 17 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter. That was down from the 25 per cent growth rate that Google delivered in the second quarter.

Google’s online advertising rates, which have been in a multi-year decline, moderated slightly in the third quarter, declining 2 per cent year-on-year, compared with the 6 per cent decline posted in the second quarter. – (Reuters)