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Comment by makmanalp | Hacker News Reader

No offense, but that's a dumb measure of activity. None of those things actually requires engaging. I can +1 an app that I used once or do a google hangout because it's more convenient than skype. That doesn't mean I use google+. The activity feed part of the site is mainly crickets.

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I think you missed my point, which was that the Wired article is citing the number from the second half of that sentence: "and 135 million are active in just the stream." (not the first number, which includes people who just +1'd an app)

I don't think the statement in the blog post could be much clearer, you just have to read the whole sentence :)

yeah, i watched an old reposted matt cutts video the other day on G+, proud to be part of the 135 000 000.

Google PR: "Google today announced that it has 135 million active users checking their Google+ streams each month."

Facebook PR: "Oct 4, 2012 - More than one billion people are active on Facebook."

These are "reports" based on PR-based spin and "rounding up." That's all. If you were a manager at one of these companies, wouldn't you sell the same schtick?

If you +1 things and use hangouts, 'using Google+' is exactly what you are doing...

You might only be at the bottom rung of MAU's with a tiny level of engagement, which if common would be easily identifiable by looking at other metrics. So it's possible they are purposely deceiving us with misleading metrics - but you are indeed a G+ user. Albeit, not a very valuable one.

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