Today, Google was extremely busy in launching Snapseed’s photo editor app for Android, making it free for iOS, as well as showcasing its new Communities product for Google+.
In addition and for the first time since September, the company has published numbers about how the social project is doing. At that time they had announced 400 million upgraded users, and 100 million active in the stream.
Here’s what the company shared today:
More than 500 million people have upgraded, 235 million are active across Google (+1′ing apps in Google Play, hanging out in Gmail, writing reviews in Maps…), and 135 million are active in just the stream.
Numbers are tricky for any service, specifically Google+. Why? Because a lot of the usage is private, among people who share things just with friends. People have tried to figure out numbers for a long time based on “public” data. Again, there’s no way to know whether that’s accurate or not, so those of us who want the actual information wait for Google to say…or not say.
Do any of these numbers make a difference if you’re already dead set against using Google’s social service? Probably not. But what it shows is that the company is dedicated to pushing forward with its overall social strategy.
Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Google+, the company’s extension into the social space. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing...
A Google project headed by Vic Gundotra and Bradley Horowitz, Google+ is designed to be the social extension of Google. Its features focus on making online sharing easy for users. “Circles,” think social circles, akin to Facebook’s lists. “Sandbar,” a user-unifying toolbar. “Sparks,” a search engine for sharing content between users. “Messenger,” a group messaging app that allows users to share with certain “Circles.” “Hangouts,” group video chatting designed to allow up to 10 users video chat at once. Each Google+ user can replace his...
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