Google+ Interest Appears To Be Waning

Despite a celebrated launch and a meteoric rise, social network Google+ may be faltering. Though the site continues to add new features and integrate with existing Google services, user engagement appears to have taken a tumble.

In the past two months, developers at 89n have noticed a significant drop in the number of public posts on Google+.

89n reported in a blog post on September 14 that they recorded a 41-percent drop in posts since July 19, 2011.

Check out a chart showing their data (below).

LOOK:

89n obtained their data by examining the 7,280 users who have integrated Twitter profiles with Google+ using 89n's ManageFlitter tool. It's a very small subset of the Google+ population, which comScore said had topped 25 million users in early August. Not to mention, 89n's data excludes posts that are shared privately.

TechCrunch advises readers to take 86n's data with a grain of salt. "86n isn’t exactly a research firm," writes TechCrunch, "and they offer little insight into their methodology for gathering and interpreting the data."

Nevertheless, we noticed a similar drop when looking at Google Insights to see who's searching Google+ (or Google Plus) in Google's Search engine. The results are clear: interest in Google+ is waning, at least among people searching Google for information about its social network.

Google Insights shows that searches from the past 30 days have declined gradually. But a look back at the past 90 days shows just how sharp a drop it's been. We also pulled back to view searches from the past year (even though Google+ launched just this summer) and saw what appears to be a nosedive.

Check out our findings (below).

Past 30 Days:

Past 90 Days:

Past 12 Months:

To put this even more into perspective, we also compared searches for Google+ (and Google Plus) in the past 90 days with searches for Google Maps, another popular Google product. In the first weeks of the social network's launch, searches can be seen to approach those for Google Maps, but they've since diverged significantly.

Google+ (and Google Plus) vs. Google Maps:

When compared with searches for Facebook in the past three months, Google+ is barely a blip on the search engine's radar. What does this mean for the new social network? Does it mean that early adopters have lost interest? Does it mean that users are posting more content privately? The Huffington Post's Craig Kanalley suggests that, whatever is happening with Google+ engagement, its launch has actually been a boon to Facebook.

"Facebook comes away from at least the first months of this battle a big winner," according to Kanalley. "In fact, so far at least, Google+'s biggest accomplishment is improving Facebook itself."

Google+ vs. Facebook:

Quick Poll

Do you think interest in Google+ is waning?

Yes

No

Share your vote on Facebook so your friends can take this poll

HuffPost's Prediction Games HuffPost's Predict The News!

Will Google+ reach 100m users in 2011?

• Yes

• No

Predict it!

Top Players

Beat your friends!

Connect through Facebook or Twitter and challenge your friends

Connect with Twitter Connect with Facebook

My friends

Comments

[Matthew Atkinson]

10:36 PM on 09/30/2011

Well, ONE problem is that you can't see it until AFTER you have to sign up for it first. Why would I sign up for something that I can't see past the "sign up for Google+" screen?

[Patricia Harlow]

10:19 AM on 09/17/2011

Google+ was a bad idea from the get-go. "Facebook Killer" yeah right. Maybe if it hadn't been so closed off and in Beta forever it may have had a chance. Social Media is no longer a new idea, you can't get away with so much exclusion. Facebook is going to be a difficult giant to topple. It's pretty much the single-sign on for the net. I see promise in Diaspora, but that's got years of development left.

[Post31]

03:03 PM on 09/16/2011

I will remember to attend the funeral

[JamezQ]

12:35 PM on 09/16/2011

since it was limited to invites only and only a limited number of my "friends" from Facebook came over there isn't any activity to keep me there, so yeah, I'd say it's dying.

[theveggiedude]

10:12 AM on 09/16/2011

Facebook has started to copy some features and improve the security settings, so people are generally less likely now to hop over to something completely new where they have to start all over again - and not just them, but they are thinking the same has to be done for all their friends - and I guess they figure it is too daunting a task.

[ClubStyle DJ]

09:05 AM on 09/16/2011

Are they counting the accounts THEY terminated and or locked out, because of psuedo names? I was using it for my Wedding DJ business and THEY locked me out because the business name wasn't like a "real name". Cut and Dry, our way or the highway, See ya... bye.
Wah wah wah, why won't people use us, so we can beat down facebook and steal their customers like they did to my_space?

They baked a fantastic, delicious looking CAKE, but used SALT instead of SUGAR in it.

[macrocosm]

12:51 AM on 09/16/2011

+ just started and as a limited beta thing, why treat this as a race before + is even fully launched? The charts & "stats" above are practically meaningless, except perhaps to describe a small subset of a small beta group, after a full launch and some time is when you'll have real data to compare.

[whowhatwhywherewhen]

02:21 PM on 09/16/2011

Stop being logical....just STOP IT. Americans can't handle that can't of logic. You are blowing their mind.

[Louis Jonesy]

12:27 AM on 09/17/2011

That is not being logical at all. That is hiding from reality. Hide behind the BETA tag all you want, But Google had PLENTY of time to copy Facebook, which they did. It is BETA in name only, which is what Google always does so their apologists will forgive the fact that no one is using it. And being in BETA would not change the fact that even the people that DID sign up have stopped using it. And that people are literally BEGGING for their friends to accept invites and they still are not.

You can be delusional all you want to think that people are desperately checking their inboxes every 5 minutes hoping for an invite, but the fact is, 95% of invites that are sent go unclicked by the recipients. Even bloggers who post their invite link on a blog that gets thousands of pageviews are saying that it resulted in only a couple dozen sign ups.

There is NO way an intelligent, logical person can spin a DECLINE into anything but a huge negative. GMail was in BETA for a long time. And at no point did it see its usage DROP. Hell...even Larry Page hasn't updated his page in over a month!

So, to let you know...you did not make Americans look bad. You made yourself look bad. The most illogical thing you can do is be a blind fanboy for a company that has failed over and over again.

[CRFawn]

11:42 PM on 09/15/2011

I only have 8 friend on Google + and when I ask people if they want an invite, most have no idea what I'm talking about. Maybe if it would have been available for everyone to join, then the flock mentality would have caused a lot of people to sign up, but because it was an exclusive "invite only" thing, not many people knew how to access an invitation. I also don't like how you can't write on someone's wall...or maybe you can? I haven't played around with it enough to really understand how it works, but it appears that you can only make updates like on Twitter and then your friends can comment on the updates. If more people I know join up, then I would be willing to use it more often. I have like 150 invitations left, but I don't know 150 people who want to sign up, lol.

[macrocosm]

12:39 AM on 09/16/2011

I think the point was to have a limited release for fine tuning, its only just begun

[Philosopher-king]

02:25 AM on 09/16/2011

Begun what?

[Sarijj]

11:50 PM on 09/16/2011

The same thing happened to Google Wave. It too started out with a limited release, but by the time the full program came out, interest had already waned, then dropped. The buzz may die down before everyone has a chance to use it.

[c0c0c0]

10:41 PM on 09/15/2011

And I am a Google fanboy too... so sad.

[c0c0c0]

10:40 PM on 09/15/2011

I was an active user of Google+ then they didn't like my psudoname. So I took my data and deleted my account. When Google+ asked me to fill out the survey I told them that I was leaving because of the psudoname policy. I said if they change that I would be back.

[RemoveTheGreedyOnes]

07:32 AM on 09/16/2011

Same reason I left and will probably not return even if they change the policy. Though, I just got an email from FB basically begging me to log in again. Personally, I don't see the need for these social sites. I stay in contact with all my personal friends in multiple ways, these social sites require too much upkeep.

Remember if you don't pay for the content YOU are the content and are giving away your personal information for free. Which is why none of my personal preferences or info is on the sites I joined i.e. FB.

[c0c0c0]

06:09 PM on 09/16/2011

I do realise that I am the product. I don't mind being product research for companies x and y, my interests are so far out there anyway that they probably throw away my info, however if they are going to collect informatoin on us and use it for marketing and product research, the data needs to be represented by a number, not a name.

[GregoryJ123]

11:34 AM on 09/16/2011

What's the sense of having an account if you can't do what you like with it? If that is so then let them struggle.. I won't be joining anytime soon until they let you choose your name as you like it..

[kareruhana]

01:17 AM on 10/01/2011

I agree, we should be able to use pseudonyms if we want to, as long as they are not offensive in some way, or we don't try to impersonate someone else. Still, Facebook has the same policy, and it hasn't hurt them any.

[apathyman]

10:38 PM on 09/15/2011

Maybe people aren't to happy about being told to log in with their real names or don't log in at all?

[Mothball]

09:13 PM on 09/15/2011

Willis what's you talkin about?
if its waning that why can't i log in to try it - they are still reporting they are at capacity

[Louis Jonesy]

12:33 AM on 09/17/2011

Because Google hasn't updated that page in 2 months. Even THEY don't care enough. If you want an invite, you don't have to look hard. Current users are literally BEGGING people to use their invites. And no one is taking them.

And what do you think "capacity" even means in this context? You think Google can't handle the traffic? Considering it is about 1/3 less overall, then sure can handle more now, if they were able to handle it in July.

[Mothball]

10:23 AM on 09/18/2011

apparently a recent invite has failed to arrive so i can say i disagree with you

[thehighbrowpoliticker]

07:02 PM on 09/15/2011

I like how it integrates with my all my Gmail accounts and Android Phone. The UI is more complicated than Facebook, but concept makes more sense. I like the fact that you share things with certain groups of people. The face to face chats called "Hangouts" can be either pretty mindless or a whole lot fun.

[thehighbrowpoliticker]

06:54 PM on 09/15/2011

I have Google Plus invites, just let me know if you want one.

[Cholmondely-Warner]

07:17 PM on 09/15/2011

I'd like to give it another try, people have sent me invites before but I never got them

[e-mail]

[thehighbrowpoliticker]

08:25 PM on 09/15/2011

Sent.

[citywest]

09:01 PM on 09/15/2011

Could you send one to [e-mail], thanks.

[thehighbrowpoliticker]

09:11 PM on 09/15/2011

Sent.

[Dnietz]

05:40 PM on 09/15/2011

The features of Google+ are great, but certain simple tasks require too many clicks and too many decisions before doing.

Overall, I like the concept and how it is built, something is still not quite right with the interface. The whole point of this kind of app is to be able to jump on and immediately read and add content and go a million miles an hour and write something without having to click 4 different clicks (each requiring a thought) before you do it.

We have to remember that Facebook got big fast before it started to add all the features that it has now. It requires lots of clicking to do certain things in Facebook, but millions and millions of people use it the basic way without thinking about all the settings and configurations. They perhaps should be, but they are not.

For most people that have some reasonable technical ability (and pretty much anyone on this site that posts comments) a little bit of fiddling around to make some selections and choices is no big deal. But we have to remember how very novice most computer users are. Some of the people I know that are prolific Facebook users barely know how to copy a file from one folder to another and don't know a thing about all the options and settings in Facebook.

The technical concept of how Google+ is built and its features are awesome. I keep planning on doing more in it and posting lots more content in it. But that is the thing, I keep planning. I haven't done it yet because the little bit that I did annoyed me. Too many clicks for some basic things.

Twitter rocks and kicks butt because it is minimalist and easy to use. There isn't much to think about to just get started and going. And following is the easiest, simplest, not much thought involved thing to do also. If someone wants to do more, they can use something like TweetDeck and its interface is super simple and easy to look at and make sense of at a glance.

I hope Google redesigns the interface for plus. It is something I would like to use more. Google knocked it out of the park with Gmail. I also think Wave was an awesome product that perhaps should have been implemented slightly differently. It would be a shame for Google+ to go the way of Wave and Buzz.

It is a great technology, it just needs some interface changes.