Google+: A One Month Review

It's been just one month since Google's anticipated answer to Facebook was first made public, and while the response to this new site was overwhelming, a lot of the attention that the launch of Google+ has garnered has been either extremely positive, or damningly negative.

The Google+ project, which was more than a year in the making, is Google's somewhat belated foray into the ever-changing world of the social network, and follows the search engine giant's earlier flops, Wave and Buzz. With Facebook fast becoming the market leader in social networking, for many consumers and insiders, the Google+ project symbolised Google's final chance to get a sweet slice of the social networking pie that well-establish sites such as Facebook and Twitter have kept to themselves for a long time.

So, in the four weeks since Google+'s release has anything changed in social networking? Have recorded numbers of users abandoned Facebook in favour of Google+'s innovative Circle and Hangout features? Well, the short answer is no, it's really far too soon to see how much of an impact this new social networking site has had on users and their online behaviour. However, if the initial figures from ComScore are to be believed, then over 20 million people have visited Google+ since its inception in June this year, which makes it the fastest-growing social network in history. While this does sound impressive, and the sheer amount of people who have also joined the site makes for reassuring reading, especially when it was initially launched as an invitation-only service, it's clear that Facebook is still the market leader in the social networking sphere, but for how much longer?

While the initial response to Google+ has been mixed, only time will tell how Google+ will effect user experience and whether this new venture will be more successful for Google than both Wave and Buzz. It's obvious that the Google+ project is still very much in its early stages, and like any good site, it will adapt to the ongoing changes in the social networking industry. While 20 million visitors in the first month is an extremely positive indicator of future success, it's worth bearing in mind that Facebook currently has 750 million users and counting, and so Google and it's Google+ project has a long road ahead if it wants to emulate the success of mark Zuckerberg's infamous site.