The expression “Unless you’ve been living under a rock…” is especially applicable in the case of people who have yet to hear of Google +. It’s everywhere. The internet has seen such a flurry of activity around the latest social incarnation in the last month or so that the excuses for being ignorant of its existence are pretty much unacceptable.

The hottest topic right off the bat with [+] is the competition that it will, or supposedly will, create for the existing social networks. Google is a force unto itself, and it’s easy to understand the existence of rumours that Google will create major waves for entities like Facebook and Twitter. What does need to be considered, however, is the foundation for these rumours.

One of the primary indicators for the popularity that [+] is currently enjoying is the number of users. It has quite a bunch, and more importantly, it has managed to draft that bunch in a remarkably short period of time. Within sixteen days of its inception, Google + had accumulated 10 million unique users. This is quite amazing by itself, but begins to move into the realm of the ridiculous when you consider that it took both Facebook and Twitter more than 2 years respectively to reach the same totals.

This is an incredible feat, and there is no question that Google has made an impact, but one needs to consider a few factors before showering the search giant with praise for their ingenuity. When Facebook first made its appearance in 2004, and Twitter in 2006, the term social network denoted something completely different. It was something new, and it took some people some time to realize the power, scope and convenience of the respective systems. Today it is hard to imagine a world without social networks, but this was not so seven years ago.

The fact that Google launched a product into a market that accepted it willingly is not indicative of the fact that it is necessarily a great product, but rather indicative of the fact that people are familiar with social networking as a concept, and thus open to trying alternative options. The fact of the matter is that Google shouldn’t rest on the fact that they achieved high numbers quickly.

Moreover, all of the hoo-hah surrounding [+] hasn’t been 100% positive. Although there are tons of individuals willing to sing Google’s praises for their latest product introduction, there is an equally large contingent on the other side of the fence looking to slag it off.

With over 20 Million users and new features being released around the clock, Google looks as though they’re moving in the right direction. Whether [+] will become a serious threat to existing social networks is up for debate at this point, and only in time will we be able to tell.

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