Whether Google+ is really growing like crazy or not, it appears that there is definitely a place for a new social network outside of facebook. And on that note could not help think that Apple probably missed a great opportunity with Ping.
"Mass exportation of email is not standard on most social networks — when a user friends someone they don’t then expect that person to be easily able to send that contact information to a third party along with hundreds of other addresses with just one click. In order to protect user privacy, we now exclude email addresses from the CSV export file."
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/26/orkut-slows-hemorraging-to-...
They're right. Programmatic export of friends' email addresses is too ripe for abuse in the world we live in.
[T]wo days after Buzz went live, Google posted a blog entry bragging that "tens of millions" of people had checked it out, and created more than 9 million posts and comments.
At some point, interest died.
So far Google+ is filled with Googlers, reporters, and tech enthusiasts. They're posting a lot, enjoying the Hangouts feature, and driving traffic to tech news sites.
But it's still way too early to know whether Google+ will get any traction with mainstream users -- the 750 million people who are on Facebook today.
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-buzz-started-off-reall...