Today we held a panel on search versus social with Turntable.fm cofounder Seth Goldstein, Meetup cofounder Scott Heiferman, and Googler Don Dodge.
When asked how many people are using Google+ Dodge replied,
"Any numbers you've heard are way low."
We asked.
"How many then?"
Heiferman joked.
"I've heard 1.5 billion."
Dodge just smiled and replied.
"The numbers are way low."
Goldstein brought up a good point though. He said.
"You're Google, you put a bar across the entire platform with a bright red box, or worse a big blue arrow, that encourages you to sign up, and it's not that hard to get to 50 million users."
Click To Join Google+
Either way, it sounds like all of the Googlers will be getting their Google+-tied bonuses this year.
COMMENTARY: I actually predicted that Google+ would go to 50 million users within six months. However, in a blog post dated November 10, 2011, news blogger Slate declared Google+ "Dead, " and I tended to agree. My reasons: Users need a more compelling reason to join and use Google+. Google+ has become boring. It's claim to fame is the HANGOUT and CIRCLES features, but Facebook is matching both features in a new update coming soon.
It was also shocking to find out that Eric Scmidt, Executive Chairman, Google, did not even post an update to his Google+ profile page, and many Google executives had done very little by the way of regular postings.
In a blog post dated November 19, 2011, Hitwise, the internet traffic research firm, reported that interest in Google+ was waning and that active users had declined from 15 million on 9/24/11 to 7 million on 11/12/11. Obviously not good news.
In a blog post dated December 5, 2011, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a BBC interview gave an interesting response to the question: : "Is Google+ A Threat?"
After all the mystery and controversy surrounding Google's, Don Dodge, a Developer Advocate for the Google describes Google+'s numbers as "way low." I don't know what Don refers to exactly, but if he is privey to Google+s actual number of members and active users, then Google+ could become a real threat to Facebook in the forseeable future.
BTW, Dod Dodge also blogs on Typepad, but the last time he blogged anything was on October 24, 2011. Come on Don, you call yourself a blogger. Blog more often.
Courtesy of an article dated December 1, 2011 appearing in Business Insider
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