After a huge initial growth spurt, Google+ isn’t gaining much user traction compared with Facebook, Twitter and even Myspace, a new study suggests.
ComScore figures show users spent an average of just 3.3 minutes onGoogle+ in January compared with Facebook users who spentbetween sixand seven hours on that site, according to a report today by Reuters.ComScore numbers also paint Google+ time usage as much shorter thantime spent on social media sites such as Twitter and Myspace.
Myspace (formerly “MySpace” butsince rebranded with the new spelling) has 27 million fewer users thanGoogle+ but its visitors spendthree times as much time on MySpace than Google+ visitors do, ComScoresaid.
User time on Google+ dropped from an average of 5.1 minutes in Novemberand 4.8 minutes in December. Google+ saw quick growth when it waslaunched last June and Google CEO Larry Page said during thecompany’sfourth-quarter earnings call that the social media site now has 90million users.
A Google spokeswoman responded to the ComScore figures this way: “Thereality that Google+ is much more than a destination site makes itexceedingly hard for any third-party research firm to monitor ormeasure its performance. Google thinks about the service not as a sitebut as a deepening of its relationship to billions of existing userswho are already committed to Google’s services like Search, YouTube,Android, etc. By this measure,engagement is already enormous.”