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Tracking Down How Many (Or How Few) People Actively Use Google+

BarbaraHudson writes Business Insider is reporting that despite billions of sign-ups, almost nobody is publicly active on Google+. Analytics and visualization blogger Kevin Anderson studied data compiled by Edward Morbius, who says that just 9% of Google+'s 2.2 billion users actively post public content. "We've got a grand spanking total of 24 profiles out of 7,875 whose 2015 post activity isn't YouTube comments but Google+ posts. That a 0.3% rate of all profile pages, going back to our 2.2 billion profiles. No wonder Dave Besbris (Google+ boss) doesn't want to talk about numbers," Morbius writes. For those interested both his methodology and the scripts used can be found here.

8 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. Seems fine to me by fyngyrz · · Score: 3, Informative

    I post. Doesn't seem to suck to me. My family is there, my friends are there.

    It could be better. Faster, mostly, and a little better at blocking other users, but all in all, I find it adequate to my needs.

    Also, I wonder about the analysis. Perhaps all the active users are in the AI and other groups where I hang out; but somehow, I doubt it. Maybe I don't understand what he means by "post public content"; wouldn't that be a post to a group or a post to one's own profile? Because there's a great deal of that going on.

    Anyway. As long as it's there, I plan to use it. Meets my needs.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  2. Sign ups by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    I like google+, but these figures aren't all that surprising. The signups really are people activating their smart phones, using gmail, signing into youtube or any other google service. Without knowing it they have created their google+ account but in reality have no interest in the service.

  3. Huh? *Scratches head* by blind+biker · · Score: 3, Informative

    Seems pretty lively to me. Even too lively, at times. I have about a thousand people circled, and am circled by a few thousand. I do post public, but I post more private posts. People in my circles have a similar ration - maybe a bit more public than private, but very similar ratio to mine.

    My experience of G+ is that it's a buzzing, lively, chaotic place with the usual fun, or thoughtful, or sometimes dramatic posts. Interestingly enough, I don't have any member of my family posting on G+

    At times my experience of G+ can be a bit frenzied, but it's mostly fun. DEFINITELY not boring.

    --
    "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
  4. flawed methodology by atfrase · · Score: 3, Informative

    This analysis (by necessity) only included *public* posts to Google+, which makes the conclusion completely meaningless.

    You can't just sweep that detail under the rug when comparing Google+ to something like Facebook. One of Google+'s biggest selling points is the ability to actually control exactly who can and cannot see everything you post, so the proportion of posts that are completely wide open to the public is going to be much, much lower than on Facebook.

    There's plenty of activity there, this guy just can't see it because it's being shared privately among friends and not with the entire internet. And rightly so.

  5. Because it's a crime not to by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    they have a no-opt-out "real location contact" address policy for developers which I find just as dangerous as their Google Plus real name policy.

    3. In some jurisdictions, operating a business without a public mailing address is a crime.

  6. Re:poisionous and risky name policy. by cheesybagel · · Score: 3, Informative

    You're wrong of course. Most people used their names because they couldn't change them. The UNIX sysadmins picked them. But there were plenty of anonymous names back then like Kibo.

  7. Re: Because it sucks by RJFerret · · Score: 3, Informative

    Heck no, the whole benefit of G+ is the privacy, not spamming people you care about with things they don't, control.

    it's great there isn't a ton of useless public content there, there is no noise, all signal. I post multiple times daily, but nobody knows that since only the relevant people can see the message.

    It's replaced email, texting, twitter, phoning, become an actul useful communication medium with nothing to complain about.

  8. Re:Google Plus Defined Itself As a Hazard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The profile delete process is also filled with scary language that makes it unclear whether you're deleting your whole Google account or just the Google+ profile. This is no mistake. It's more sneaky bullshit that seems to come more from the Microsoft camp than the Google camp. Google needs to be careful. Microsoft is hated by an enormous number of users. It's almost funny today to hear Microsoft executives try and figure out why nobody likes them. Sure, today you're being cool but the public has a long memory. The Microsoft brand is now fully tarnished for millions of users who use their products but have absolutely zero brand loyalty and are ready at all times to jump ship for a less bloated word processor or a more stable OS. This too could happen to Google. Leveraging ones power over your customer base might seem to 'work' in the short term. But pissing people off tends to have long term adverse effects.