It’s time again for Google’s shareholders to toss some confetti and raise glasses of not-particularly-cheap champagne.  The search giant released its third quarter earnings report this afternoon, and it beat analysts’ forecasts by an impressive amount.

Google was supposed to report a net revenue figure in the neighborhood of $5.25 billion.  Instead, the company was able to report $5.5 billion.  Then it scored an even bigger victory in terms of earnings per share, managing to generate $7.64 rather than $6.67.

Crazier still, and straight from the press release, is this fact: "As of September 30, 2010, cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $33.4 billion."  Which means Google’s got more than the (separate) GDPs of about 100 different countries sitting in the bank.

Plus, Google acknowledged it had 23,331 full-time employees as of September 30th, so it achieved all this despite bringing on 1,526 new recruits since June 30th.

As a result, CEO Eric Schmidt accurately summarized, "Google had an excellent quarter.  Our core business grew very well, and our newer businesses – particularly display and mobile – continued to show significant momentum."

Google’s stock is now up 9.36 percent in after-hours trading.