While Google+ might be taking off (with over 20 million users and counting) the service is mainly dominated by only a few names. As this visualization shows, most of the activity is centered around only a few people, with tenuous links to the “other half”.
The brain behind the mining, Matthew Hurst, is quick to point out that this is not an in-depth crawl of the site, but rather a broad overview of links into and out from Google+. That doesn’t, however, eliminate the interesting points:
…there is a clear tightly connected component that is distinguished from a more dilute area. I suspect, without any real investigation, that this is the core area of Google employees and some of their immediate connections as well as alpha users.
As one commenter notes, though, the only information that could be gathered for this investigation is on public posts. If someone never posts publicly, they won’t show up in the results. This is, according to Google+ VP of Product Bradley Horowitz, “by design”.
The tiny little caveat from a commenter actually means that the “dark matter” that’s invisible to Mr. Hurst accounts for the vast majority of data.
At any rate, it’s an interesting look at the ecosystem of Google+ and the “Scoble Effect” where one person can completely dominate a network due to their connections.
Im not sure where I read it but apparently about half of twitter accounts have never actually posted a tweet either, so I don’t see this as much of a problem. Especially considering Google + is not an open project at the moment.
hell yea :)
Still on FB mostly. Google+ circles look useful, but it’s time-consuming to invite everyone.
Isn’t that the purpose of circles?
How many FB users never posted at all? I would guess minimum 50%.
1? Lol
I don’t have enough friends yet and like Sheridan said, it is time consuming trying to invite everyone you know
It took me a while to realize how awesome G+ is. For years I wanted a place to post pics of my kids for my in-laws to be able to see from FL. But I didn’t want them out in the public. But I also didn’t want them to have to log into a site every time.
On the other hand I also love sharing cool, funny, interesting links with whoever cares to see them. G+ is now both of those things and more. I just pointed mattbrodeur.com to my G+ page. If my in-laws go there they can see family stuff. If my friends go there they can see all my friends circle stuff. If a stranger goes there they can see all my public posts like a blog. Best of all worlds!
i`v got about 300 friend on G+ and have one post)))
As we’ve disclosed, users are more than twice as likely to share to a circle than they are to share publicly. The tiny little caveat from a commenter actually means that the “dark matter” that’s invisible to Mr. Hurst accounts for the vast majority of data. By design.
@bradleyhorowitz Thanks Bradley. It’s interesting to see that people really do want more privacy than has been afforded prior to Google+.
My personal stats: I invited 100 friends to connect on G+ (I have over 500 on FB but I invited 100 to have some kind of stats):
- about 15 registered on G+, 8 put pictures, 3 wrote something:
–1 to lament it’s too complicated and there are too many options, clicks, etc.
–2 work in social media and still post very randomply (only to promote their blog, like I do)
I wrote a piece on why G+ may fail on my blog after I used G+ for a while.
My personal stats: I invited 100 friends to connect on G+ (I have over 500 on FB but I invited 100 to have some kind of stats):
- about 15 registered on G+, 8 put pictures, 3 wrote something:
–1 to lament it’s too complicated and there are too many options, clicks, etc.
–2 work in social media and still post very randomly (only to promote their blog, like I do)
I wrote a piece on why G+ may fail on my blog after I used G+ for a while.
I’m not sure we can take much for these figures. 48% of ‘who’. As noted, they can only analyze public posts. There will be 10,00′s of people who have never used G+ since the day they signed up — so 48% of active users might be more accurate, of course we have no idea how many are active either.
@bradleyhorowitz I’ve added your comment to the post, as well, as it’s critically important. Thanks for taking the time to come by and post.
90% public. G+ is so far so good for me. Still dig FB too, more for family, client relations managements – since G+ doesn’t have business profiles yet.
I do post public most of the time ;)
“48% of Google+ users have never made a public post” .. and thats perfectly fine with me.
This is quite vague and incomplete a picture, as others have pointed out. In any case, if it is correct that 48% of users have never made a public post, I will be happy because that is the real value of G+ compared to Facebook and others, in that you can _choose_ to share your posts with someone or some people privately, or with the entire world publicly. G+ is giving users the tool to maintain their privacy and if they are using those tools effectively, that’s great!
what is this g+ all abt?
what is this g+ all abt?
Almost all of my posts are public, unless the topic’s a niche one, such as news about the new poet laureate. – Erin
Almost all of my posts are public, unless the topic’s a niche one, such as news about the new poet laureate. – Erin
Mostly public but that’s because I’m still lazy to setup the Circles properly.
But even when that will be the case I’m sure that I won’t skip public thread posting.
Depends of what you post.
Mostly public but that’s because I’m still lazy to setup the Circles properly.
But even when that will be the case I’m sure that I won’t skip public thread posting.
Depends of what you post.
Privacy+Internet=nonsense :)
My guess is that 80% of Facebook users have never made a public post either. So what?
and this figure tends to increase now that Google is sending alerts and closing business profiles. Many are not happy with this.
Go browse facebook without logging in. If Google+ is a ghost town, Facebook is an empty island covered by locked doors.
I’d argue that the average Google user is a lot more likely to post a “public” post than the average facebook user. Most people on facebook use it as all or nothing. The fact that 50% of people post things publicly (aka, you don’t have to log in to see it) is HUGE.
That is EXTREMELY surprising. Based on my experience on the site, I would have figured it was more like 96%.
After all, they have like 28 million users, but only 1.7 page views per day.
@Jason L Bauman Wow…you apparently just expect us to take your bluff and not call you on it. You get FAR more viewable profiles (in total and in percentage) on Facebook. With Google+ you don’t even get pictures because most sign up have never bothered to even do that.
I know the last few weeks have been really tough for you and the rest of the fanboys who have pictures of Sergey and Arry next to their bed alongside the KY and tissues. What with traffic FALLING already (can’t deny the facts) and how after 4 weeks to get to 25 million, they have gotten less than 5 million in the last 3 weeks. (Hell…Facebook has signed up more than that in the last 3 weeks.) Or how 28 million users are somehow only giving Google+ 1.7 million page views a day. And sith power users accounting for most of that, that means that an estimated 60 out of every 61 users don’t check their profile every day.
As for your last paragraph…not…50% do not “post publicly” 50% have posted at least ONE thing publicly. Most have posted just that one. Their “hello world” post when they first signed up andthen never came back to it.
@Kanti Kumar You can choose to do that with Facebook just as easily too. Don’t blame fAcebook for your ignorance and computer illiteracy.
@bradleyhorowitz as YOU’VE disclosed. OK..sure.
@Jonatha “As easily”? A non-techy person like me found it easy to do on G+ in a the first week and not so after using Facebook for 4 years. That says all.
@Brad McCarty Yay, that’s true. It’s a matter of having choices.
Why the surprise? I am not as starving for attention as Scoble and other internet celebs of the moment are. Almost all of my posts are to my circles and extended circles. I have over 800 in my circles and am in over 600 circles of other users. Why post to the public?