Hacker News Reader

Comment by murz | Hacker News Reader

> Which would be great if checking a feed meant more than logging into your gmail.

If you read the actual announcement it would be clear that when they say "stream-actives", they are not including people logging into Gmail.

"Today Google+ is the fastest-growing network thingy ever. More than 500 million people have upgraded, 235 million are active across Google (+1'ing apps in Google Play, hanging out in Gmail, connecting with friends in Search...), and 135 million are active in just the stream."

Source: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/google-communities-an... (which is linked from the Wired article)

View on HN

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.

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.

I am not in doubt about these statistics, but the perceived reality is far from what Google is trying to suggest. From my personal experience G+ is still a ghost town (as far as seeing activity from my friends).

Because obviously your experience is a much more reliable indicator for the overall state of Google+ than, you know, Google's actual numbers rollseyes

I was stating my personal experience and how different it is from what the numbers suggest. I am sorry hear that you had to generalize on your own.

My own experience is the same. Our facebook page has over 2000 likes, our twitter feed has about 360 followers, but we only have 19 people following us on google+ (even though we've been on there for a year, post all the same things on google+ and promote our g+ page as much if not more than the others).

On a personal note none of my friends uses google+ (only my wife). They pretty much all use facebook.

Because obviously you'd trust Google's numbers promoting their own service rather than your own experience rollseyes

I think the general consensus I'm getting is that Google+ isn't necessarily a place for you to connect with your friends. I use it primarily to connect with people I don't know that share common interests. I suspect many others do the same.

Exactly. I see people with G+ profiles unknowingly making themselves available to the public through messaging. It's horrible.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com