The crazy thing about Google+ is that <i>ordinary people are already actually using it</i>. I have a ton of non-tech savvy friends on it already, and people are making posts that get 5-10 replies. This isn't just "yet another social networking site". I think Google finally managed to pull it off this time, and if they ride the wave of positive sentiment they've gained as a result of Android and other successful ventures as of late, they'll probably be able to get people to trust them with their data much more than Facebook ever could.
I think one of the main reasons why Google+ is doing so well is that they have taken time to produce a really well designed user interface. Facebook's UI is really poor in comparison. As a user, interaction should come natural and with Google+ it does. This is highlighted by positive interaction from 'non-techy' users. It is actually a pleasure to use. I could happily create and delete circles all day long :)
The fact that random peoples' posts on Google+ show up as 'google.com' here and elsewhere is not good for Google's ownership of its messaging. On the other hand, their use of the blogspot.com domain for official news suggests they don't care, but on the <i>other</i> other hand, what is 'googleusercontent.com' if not a separation of what's Google's from what's everyone elses?
Orkut was huge in the beginning too. I mean plus is a nice and clean interface and I am all for people to use that all kudos to Google for doing it.<p>There was Facebook Lite that somewhat resembled this (imo) . Maybe google has gotten the 'lite' ingredients just right. Because if they didn't - you know how <i>light</i> mayonnaise tastes like ;-)<p>+
Direct link to post: <a href="https://plus.google.com/117388252776312694644/posts/bGJPTALDkDe" rel="nofollow">https://plus.google.com/117388252776312694644/posts/bGJPTALD...</a><p>(There's a menu in the top right of posts (under an icon that looks like a circle with an down arrow) that has a "Link to this post" option. Saves having to click the "Expand this post »" link.)
How many are actual users? About 50% of my friends in Google+ have no info, posts, pictures, etc., up. They're on Google+ because they got an invite and that's it. What's the use of having that many users if half of them don't use it?
I was having a conversation with my non tech-savvy roommate last night about G+, and one of the things we noticed was that the name itself is just completely uncompelling. What does G+ mean? What does it imply? We concluded it would be a great name for a new calculator.<p>Facebook at least has the tangential meaning originating from printed college 'facebooks' which a substantial portion of the (American) population is familiar with.
This is funny, because I haven't received an invite yet (and I'm a longtime GMail user). A couple of my friends have G+, but never use it. They created profiles with great excitement, but in a couple of days it petered away.<p>Until I can try it out it's hard to believe all these numbers. Only time will tell, I guess; but one should be wary of the people who chase the next shiny thing, for they are fickle indeed.
Searching the Google Plus about pages returns about 8.88M users currently:<p><a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1366&bih=653&q=inurl%3Aplus.google.com%2F*about+site%3Aplus.google.com&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1366&bih=653&...</a>
this seems to give an indication.<p><a href="https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=inurl%3Aplus.google.com%2F*about+site%3Aplus.google.com" rel="nofollow">https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=inurl%3Aplus.google.co...</a>
Mark Zuckerburg has joined Google+: <a href="https://plus.google.com/104560124403688998123/posts" rel="nofollow">https://plus.google.com/104560124403688998123/posts</a>