If you have a Google + account, you may have stopped using it due to inactivity on your feed. Coupled with evidence that the site was not as active as it was at launch, you may have believed you were correct in thinking that the site was slowing dying. Yet, according to Experian Hitwise, Google+ just had its biggest ever month in December, with 49,000,000 views.
Image source: Hitwise
The reason for the surge in traffic is unclear, but it represents a 55% increase over November 2011, so clearly the network is doing something right. While it still has a long way to go to reach Facebook, the surge in hits should hopefully prove encouraging to the employees who have worked on the project to bring it to fruition. When Google+ first launched, with users having to be emailed a beta invite, the service seemed to be highly active, and some people were prepared to buy their way into the beta as well due to the hype surrounding it.
After Google+ went public, it seemed to tail off a little, and then a lot. Many different infographics quickly appeared on the internet to show the meteoric rise and fall of Google's attempt at making a social network. While the company may have attempted the same with projects such as Wave and Buzz (both now defunct), Google+ was thought to have a chance against its competitors; supposedly the service recently passed 62,000,000 users in the past week. If this is the case, it could be argued that it does not retain the user base, who may infrequently login and then become disinterested again.
It is encouraging to see Google+ hits increasing, since the service is highly integrated with many other Google services that many people use daily. With the service being more tightly integrated with the latest version of Android, known as 'Ice Cream Sandwich', the figures could increase further as more devices receive the update.
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