Google + vs Facebook - Hits Twenty Million Mark in Three Weeks

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Google has been trying hard to create a social networking interface similar to Facebook, or even better. It started off very shakily with its Wave, which didn't really hit a chord with the masses and later the Buzz too failed to create the "buzz". The latest social networking project thrown up by Google is the Google Plus or Google +. Google Plus was released last month on a trial basis to see the response of the people, and to its surprise, it had generated 20 million unique visitors in just three weeks since its release out of which 5 million users are from the US alone. This data was released by the research firm ComScore. 

It was just a week before that the Google CEO, Larry Page had reported Google + to have received 10 million visitors with lots of activity taking place on the site.

"It is definitely the fastest ascent to 20 million visitors that I can think of," Andrew Lipsman, ComScore's vice president of industry analysis, told the Los Angeles Times. 

The Google + was launched late last month, and it seemed as though Google was in a great hurry to overtake Facebook or at least give them stiff competition, or something to think about, as it did not bother with going through the "Beta" phase at all. It started off by sending out invites to a select group of people, who then were allowed to invite in their friends and families to interact on the site.  There are still lots of people vying for the invite, me included. It is kind of similar to the way it introduced the Gmail facility.

Of course, Facebook is way ahead in the amount of users that it has with 750 million at present, so Google Plus still has a long way to go. But the numbers for just three weeks to hit the 20 million mark is still impressive. And the site continues to expand its user base as more people sign up. 

Google Plus has some very attractive features where sharing and making circles of friends, acquaintances and colleagues are concerned. There is also photo sharing, a place to hangout and also hold video chats with selected friends. It also has feeds that you can select according to your interests. If seen broadly, all these features look exciting, but wonder of they will really prove to work the way it is supposed to. The Google + Project is still in the "limited Field Trial" phase and so it is still in the process of working out the kinks according to the feedback generated from the users who are already signed in.

Recently, Facebook had banned certain Google ads from its site without giving any reason and also blocked its account. Can the Google "+" button overtake the Facebook "Like" button? The Google's fun social networking is definitely growing much faster than expected. There are already reports coming out about the negative aspects of the Google + site regarding its usage and privacy concerns. 

If you want to know all The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Google Plus then you might want to read this article written by Aaron Strout on Zdnet. 

I am still waiting to get an invite to try out the Google Plus. Have you tried it out yet? Do you think you would leave Facebook to start "Googling". Are you going to convert into a "Google Buddy"? So exactly how popular do you think this new social networking project is going to be?