Google + 10M & Counting
July 17th, 2011 | by Jen |Google’s ambitious attempt to take on Facebook is bearing fruit with Google+ now counting more than 10 million members and more than a billion items are shared there every day.
Rather, Google’s new social-networking endeavor is about trying to gain valuable insights into people’s lives and relationships. This could help the company do a better job of targeting ads so that advertisers would pay more and have less reason to spend their money on Facebook.
If it succeeds, Plus represents Google’s best shot yet at muscling into a market that has threatened to topple the internet search and advertising leader, as Facebook leads the way in making the online world social.
On the surface, Plus is reminiscent of Facebook — with a Google touch. It lets people share photos and status messages, chat with friends and acquaintances and follow news updates. A prominent feature called circles allows users to organize the people they interact with into groups, such as family, close friends or fishing buddies. Users can choose to share things only among certain circles.