News - Google+ 90 million subscribers confirmed, but who's using it?

[HEXUS]

That's more sign-ups than Facebook got in four years!

Read more.

[Terbinator]

ScaryJim.

[aidanjt]

I don't really have reason to doubt the numbers. G+ is getting busier all the time and Google has made it much more obvious to get at from the Google home page, than say, Wave. I'd imagine that rate will only increase as Android 4.0 is rolled out to more devices (and more ICS phones/tablets sell), G+ is given more prominence on that.

[AlexKitch]

I'm skeptical. I don't know *anybody* that's using Google+ regularly.

The biggest issue is that Google+ doesn't offer anything that Facebook isn't already doing. Google also have a brand issue - they're unable to sell 'cool'. Microsoft tend to have the same problem, which is why they ditched MSN Spaces and invested in supporting Facebook instead.

[krazy_olie]

Basically every gmail user has an account, I don't know anyone that uses it. I try not to use gmail too as it's become massively inferior to hotmail.

MSN could have been THE social network as they had such a massive base to start with but I don't think they invested enough in to it. I remember my friends and I having msn profiles etc but you couldn't really interact through them.

[Mattus]

How many of those 'subscribers' are actually using the site on a remotely regular basis?

I suspect a lot of them are like me. I created an account out of curiosity, but I never use it because about 3 of my friends are active on it, so there's no reason to use it instead of Facebook.

[Hoonigan]

I have an account, but don't really ever use it.. I think I maybe visit it once a week, whereas Facebook I visit several times and day and Twitter I visit several times an hour.

I find Google+ a bit too confusing to use, it's not intuitive like Twitter and Facebook.. Far too much faffing about with different circles and stuff.

[fuddam]

I have an account and use it daily (as well as FB & Twitter).

I find it's far more effective in communicating ideas/content than the others. FB tends to just show you stuff from people you know (whereas G+ allows you to follow ideas/people/trends), and Twitter doesn't give as much space for content as G+.

It's kinda like Twitter on steroids, imho.

[Brewster0101]

Got it, used it for an hour and then only use it to watch the philip de franco show. None of my friends used it more than an hour when signing up to it. I think it is better than FB but no one uses it.

[mikerr]

Google has made it much more obvious to get at from the Google home page, than say, Wave

They're bringing everything inside google+, wave or something similar will be merged in at some point too.

All gmail users and picasa web ablums are automatically G+ accounts aren't they?

[mycarsavw]

I use it to stalk follow a few notable people but I don't know any friends that are using it over Farcebook.

Basically every gmail user has an account, I don't know anyone that uses it. I try not to use gmail too as it's become massively inferior to hotmail.

In what way is it 'massively inferior'?

[aidanjt]

All gmail users and picasa web ablums are automatically G+ accounts aren't they?

Not automatically, you have to agree to terms of service when you click on Google+ for the first time, afaik. I did, at least, I'm not sure if that policy has changed yet.

[Biscuit]

I have an account, but don't really ever use it.. I think I maybe visit it once a week, whereas Facebook I visit several times and day and Twitter I visit several times an hour.

I find Google+ a bit too confusing to use, it's not intuitive like Twitter and Facebook.. Far too much faffing about with different circles and stuff.

Personally i found all the privacy settings and the circles stuff to make it a lot more straight forward than facebook. Trying to set any kind of privacy on facebook is a freaking nightmare!

In what way is it 'massively inferior'?

I was thinking that myself Hotmail has improved, but only to pretty much the same level gmail has been at for years!

I have a G+ account and i think its fantastic, however like others posters, no-one else is active on there so its become a bit pointless.
Its frustrating really as everyone moans about how rubbish Facebook is, then when given a reasonably viable alternative, they don't even use it.

Twitter i think is COMPLETE PANTS.

[AlexKitch]

I've grown to actually dislike GMail rather a lot. The interface has become cluttered and very difficult to work with. I'd use one of the alternative themes but, frankly, they all look dreadful in different ways.

Pro-tip to Google: If you're going to remove text from interface buttons, make sure the icon on the button represents precisely what the button does. The first couple of times I used the new interface, I had to hover over EVERY button to find the "Mark as Spam" button - something which used to be very obvious.

[Pancake]

Basically every gmail user has an account, I don't know anyone that uses it. I try not to use gmail too as it's become massively inferior to hotmail.

Dohoho, are you 12? or do you like spam?

Or is it opposite day?

[Noxvayl]

Found an error in the article: "Page doesn’t seem to worried about speculation at this point,"

I thought the Hotmail comment was exaggerated; I have Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail accounts and find Hotmail to be the least usable of them because of its slow response time(I have only 2Mb internet connection)... I find it hard to work with other email clients because Gmail automatically puts all replies into the same email so the full conversation is easy to follow and you don't need 20 different emails for one conversation.

As for G+, I much prefer it to Facebook but none of my friends use it, they'd rather stick with Facebook and post nothing there I am also pretty sure with the automatic sign ups that the statistics are inflated. Then again with the circles functionality the reduced usage could be because of people only sharing with friends they want to share with thus the spam is greatly reduced making it seem like less activity is occurring.