Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has announced financial results for the quarter that ended in September 30, 2011. Google reported revenues of $9.72 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2011. This is an increase of 33% compared to the third quarter of 2010.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has officially closed the acquisition of Skype Global S.à r.l for $8.5 billion. The board of directors at Microsoft and Skype previously approved the acquisition.

The new phone designed by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) known as the iPhone 4S is drawing large crowds at Apple Stores, including a rainy day at the Fifth Avenue store in New York City. The iPhone 4S is going for sale in the U.S., Canada, Australia, U.K., France, Germany and Japan today. Below is the iPhone 4S launch on Fifth Avenue:

An appellate court in New York has decided not to hear any further arguments about why Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss should not have to pay $13 million to a law firm that helped them draft a settlement agreement with Facebook. The Winklevoss twins sued Facebook several years ago and eventually agreed to a $65 million settlement.

Foursquare has added Radar as a feature to their mobile app. If you follow a list or if you have a place on your to-do list that is near-by, then Radar will notify you about it as a reminder. Foursquare’s Radar feature works on iOS 5.

Dennis Ritchie has passed away this past weekend after a long battle with an unspecified illness. Ritchie was the original developer of the C programming language and an original developer of Unix. Ritchie spent a lot of his career working at Bell Labs. [BoingBoing]

Steve Yegge is an engineer at Google that accidentally posted a message that publicly bashed on the Google+ social network on Tuesday night. Yegge insisted that Google as a company does not understand platforms. Below is a portion of Yegge’s note:

[old Pets.com mascot]

Every website has an icon or mascot that represents their brand. These brands have become household icons and sometimes people dress like them for halloween. Check out the best website mascots below: