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Fair statement or not, the social networking scene consists of Facebook (the largest social playground in the solar system), Twitter (the most popular micro-blog around), and everyone else. That's how it's perceived, anyway, with Google+ viewed by many as not much more than a ghost town, a struggling afterthought that most people are familiar with, but nobody actually uses. If going by the numbers, that perception is wrong.
Experian Hitwise provided data to Mashable that shows visits to Google+ growing steadily in recent months. To wit, total visits to Google's social service topped 61 million in March, representing a remarkable 27 percent spike from the previous month, according to the data.
It's hard to view a site as a ghost town when it's growing at such a steady clip and logging 61 million visits, though the naysayers will be quick to point out that Hitwise's data says nothing about the activity level on Google+. Just because millions of people are checking it out doesn't necessarily mean they're actually posting content, but then again, there has to be content to attract that many visitors in the first place.
While Hitwise is reluctant to talk about Google+'s activity level, Google CEO Larry Page isn't.
"It's still in the early days, and we have a long way to go. But there are tremendously important changes, and with over 120 Google+ integrations to date (including Google Search, YouTube, and Android), we are on the right track," Page said a day before Hitwise released its data. "Well over 100 million users are active on Google+, and we're seeing a positive impact across the Web, with Google users being able to recommend search results and videos they like -- a goal we've had ever since we started the company,"
How often, if ever, do you visit Google+? How would you describe your activity level?
Paul Lilly is an active Google+ user (see here) who welcomes online stalkers, and so is Maximum PC, which you can follow here.
Image Credit: failbook.com
Comments are closed on this article
Paul_Lilly
April 10, 2012 at 5:17am
I really like Google+, though your experience depends entirely on who you 'Follow'.
Supall
April 09, 2012 at 8:23am
There's a lot of content on Google+. Follow the right people and put up content of your own. Tech stuff, photos (beautiful photos!), geek stuff, legos, even stuff related to SharePoint is up there. You just gotta check it out.
xmichaelx
April 09, 2012 at 8:28am
Right - this is Google+'s strength: Discovery. People like to compare it to Facebook, but really it's more like Twitter on steroids. I don't do a lot of interacting there, but I find great stuff every day.
Ilander
April 09, 2012 at 8:01am
I'm on G+ every day. It fills a different role for me than facebook, though. Facebook is about people I've met in real life, twitter is about interacting with people I don't know, and G+ is somewhere in between, sharing my viewpoint out to people who might be interested.
