On Wednesday, Web-traffic watcher comScore Inc. estimated Google+ has had 20 million
On Wednesday, Web-traffic watcher comScore Inc. estimated Google+ has had 20 million unique visitors since its launch, including five million visitors from the U.S. A Google spokeswoman declined comment.
ComScore, whose estimates are based on a “global measurement panel” of two million Internet users, similar to the approach Nielsen uses to measure television ratings,doesn’t have data on the number of minutes people spent on Google+.
Still, the growth of Google+ has impressed observers because access to it is by invitation only, meaning people can join only if a current member invites them. And the company hasn’t yet marketed the service to the more than one billion monthly visitors who use its search engine, Gmail and other services.
Google+ lets people share comments, articles, photos and videos with various “circles” of friends or contacts, or they can share content publicly with any userwho wants to view their posts. Eventually, Google plans to incorporate features of Google+ in its other services, such as its YouTube video site.
“I’ve never seen anything grow this quickly,” said Andrew Lipsman, vice president of industry analysis at comScore. The only other site that has accumulated as many new visitors in a short period of time is Twitter in 2009, he said, “but that happened over several months.”
With Google+, Google is aiming to match rivals like Facebook, which used personal information posted by its members to create a multibillion-dollar advertising business that lets marketers target specific demographic groups or people with certain interests. Google also hopes the service can become a home for brands and celebrities.
The data Google obtains about people’s interests could also help it change the way its Web-search engine works. Sites in its search results could potentially be ranked based on what users and their friends like or find useful, Google engineers have said.