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Comment by durga | Hacker News Reader

Don't buy the "x million use the google+ site regularly every month" number. The number of people who actively use g+ is miniscule. Don't believe me? Put a status message on fb and ask how many of them use g+. Or post it on linkedin or email all your contacts.

Pretty much any decent product has a small number of fans. That doesn't make it "successful" by any statistical standards.

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The number of people who actively use g+ is miniscule

[citation needed]

Weak sauce, I say. It's readily apparent that they are the #2 social network in terms of actual usage.

Put a status message on fb and ask how many of them use g+

Shall I also ask MySpace users how many of them use G+?

Seriously, that "ghost town" bullshit simply isn't going to fly. It's been done to death, everybody's heard it, and anybody who is actually, you know, active on Google+ laughs at people who repeat it.

The reason the misconception is still around is because the group of people laughing about the ghost-towners on Google+ is so small to begin with that the general trend never gets corrected. In other words, because it's true ;)

PS. I think you're using "weak sauce" incorrectly.

I think you're using "weak sauce" incorrectly

Not at all: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=weaksauce

Googlers like to think that G+ is one of the biggest social networks. The reason the reported numbers are so high is because now YouTube users have to integrate with G+ and all sorts of Google products funnel users in. These users do one thing, and never use the service again.

Google+ has loads of users who aren't doing that, though. I mean users who are there to use Google+, and not to use YouTube, Google Drive, Gmail, &c.

Who, other than VCs, actually care about how many folks use a given social network? As long as the people you care to read, and some smattering of other interesting people are on the network, total size doesn't matter.

Metafilter is quite successful, but also very, very small.

It could influence if you use a plus button on your site (to seek virality), if you create a page for your company, etc

Metric-motivated marketing managers, maybe?

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