Google+ is home to 40 million users and 3.4 billion image uploads

By Jared DiPane  | Oct 13 2011 | 4:46 pm  | 19 Comments

Google Plus

40 million users, and 3.4 billion photo uploads through Google+. Take a moment, let that settle into your system. Those are some pretty large numbers considering that Google+ was in closed beta for a while, and only went public a few weeks ago. While many seemed to question Google+, and wonder if it would take off and / or be able to stick around for the long haul, the numbers look pretty solid, and we hope to see more growth as Google continues to support it and make enhancements.

Oh, and you are following us all, right?

Jared DiPane

Jared DiPane Contributing Writer

"Jared DiPane is a Jersey guy who is all about GTL. Gadgets, Tech & Laughter that is."

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There are 19 comments

El Jefe says:

I'm surprised it isn't more people, actually.

Weren't there about 10 million when it was still invitation only?

pDoG says:

I'm all for Google, of course, but it seems a lot of my friends and family so not use Google plus. Which is unfortunate because I'd like to use my account more.

eolsgaard says:

That's quite a big number, but I have to say, even though I have at least 40 or 50 friends on Google+, it's nowhere near as proportionally active as my 200-300 facebook friends. I think a big part has to do with the fact that you can't post on people's "walls." There's no way to say "hi" to someone unless you're commenting directly to something they've said. So I try to stir the pot with lots of random posts, but there's just no responses. And I'd think that maybe it's just my friends, but as I said, these are the same people that are crazy active on facebook. I mean, some of them are active to the point of being annoying, and yet I get nothing from them on G+. In the words of Phil Dunphy, "Why The Face?"

VideoEngineerAJS says:

Yeah, I don't have that many friends on Google+ either. I honestly just think it's not quite there yet. I barely even check Google+ anymore because it's usually the same stuff from like 3 days ago.

abtxpress says:

I have to agree with you, I post but no one comments back. Makes me feel like I am a G+ looser. I post on Facebook, the same status update, I get like 10 comments in 10 minutes. I have very few real friends on G+. The problem is none of my friends and family want to use G+.

HOBLIUM says:

"There's no way to say "hi" to someone unless..."

Quick tip: post your "hello" and set your sharing to just their name. It will look and feel like a regular wall post, except only you and they can see it (and you can further lock it down by disabling a reshare). Or, to keep the view as a more traditional wall post, share with them directly and add whatever circle(s) you'd like to be able to view your "wall post." So it can either be a PM or a wall post depending on how you set sharing.

For me, it's like posting on someone's wall without having to leave my own homepage.

briankurtz79 says:

Dude you can select any group or person or any combination of any group or people you want to post to. Ido like the mf reference though..too funny

pDoG says:

I'm all for Google, of course, but it seems a lot of my friends and family so not use Google plus. Which is unfortunate because I'd like to use my account more.

GrillMouster says:

I think it was invitation only for a little too long. It gave facebook a chance to catch up on some features. G+ took off with niche groups centered around an interest or hobby, like photography, but for family & friends, not so much.

abtxpress says:

Go Google+. On a side note, all those picture uploads, are they publicly shared pictures or just like all my photos that upload when I take the picture that I don't share?

blz2 says:

Is that active users or accounts?
Am I missing something or is there no way to message people on the webpage? Messenger works on the app, but I can't see any way to send someone a message or even post on their profile. No one in my Circles show up in Chat.

Jerry Hildenbrand says:

Write a post, and only share it with them.  I do it all the time.

blz2 says:

Hmmm didn't think of that. Different, but I can get used to it. Thanks

casperinmd says:

@eolsgaard
You can post on their "wall". Simply post and only share with them. It then becomes a conversation between you two only.

I find conversations on Facebook are all I'm doing this and that etc. My G+ is more informative to me.

Jonneh says:

I enjoy the different languages and cultures that show up in my stream. Being able to filter the stream makes it easy to turn them off when I long for simple English conversation and news, too. However, I don't have a Facebook to compare it to...

joshua.mcf says:

What's the source?

Cadillac.Cowboy says:

And yet, Google+ is STILL not available to Google Apps customers (i.e. those that PAY for Google's services)...

Let's hope this is not going to be another Google Buzz - Google Apps customers were told that Google Buzz will be available "in the near future", yet two years on, we're STILL waiting!

grlla says:

All those big numbers and I know five people who use G+. Perhaps I'm not representative of the HUGE A$$ G+ revolution, but my take on G+ is:

"Late to the party doesn't allow you to get your ticket punched".

F-book baby.

Cadillac.Cowboy says:

Remember though, historically no single social network has held the top spot for too long... Once upon a time, Friendster was the king, only to be dethroned by MySpace; Facebook went to war with MySpace and came out on top and now Google+ is threatening Facebook's dominance.

Further to this, brand-loyalty is not strong in social networking, according to statistics, and the majority of users will gladly jump ship to the competition if the functionality is perceived to be better...