Google+ is gaining ground

Google+ is gaining ground.  That was the exact note that I made to myself last Monday.  With redesign launched back in April 2012, I found myself spending more time on Google+ for a simple reason.  I was finding interesting content to keep me on Google+ through Explore tab.

I now make a point to go browse Explore tab to get an idea about what's trending in my interests.  Inspirational commencement speech videos that I shared yesterday were curated from Google+ in addition to a few other content.

The fact that Google+ is gaining popularity with its own techy ambiance is not surprising.  Most of us following social network space have anticipated that there will be more than one winners (that's because each network has its context).

What is interesting, however, is how younger geeky male population is adopting Google+ and claiming it as a social network of their choice.  My guess is that Google+ must have targeted to go after younger and more technical users by promoting content that might appeal to these audience.

See any pattern?  Both Rihanna and Justine choose their network to build their presence.
Not the case with Albert Einstein.  Someone must be generating content on Einstein's behalf.

Concerted efforts to bring users into Google+ is working.  According to Experian Hitwise US, Google+ is now trending at 5th most popular social media site after Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Yahoo! Answers.  And the margin between Google+ and Yahoo! Answers is shrinking as Google+ is showing upward trend.

Google+ just took 5th spot bumping Pinterest down.
Original report is available here.

Infographics created by Pardot comparing Google+ and Facebook by typical user profile, brands and content type also highlights the difference between two social networks.

Google+ is finding its spot on social graph as content curation network.  It would be interesting to see whether Facebook comes up with counter move to slow Google+'s growth.  Maybe it's time for Facebook to juice up the Facebook Interests?