Is Google+ struggling?

It is true that Google is leaving no stone unturned to get a large crowd in its social networking site. At first Google+ was invite only, as Google hoped to amp up the anticipation for users. Obviously that didnt work, so they were forced to throw open the cyber gates and allow just about everyone to become a member.

At first, the open gates strategy seemed to work quite well. The traffic to Google+ jumped up by almost 1,200 percent over the course of a single day. However, since then the craze has petered off, and the sites traffic has dropped by a massive 60 percent. Given the fact that Google is search giant with a huge presence in the mobile space as well, it is surprising that its foray into social networking is not on a more stable footing.

A report recently released by web analyst firm, Chitika, states, The supply of users for social media sites is limited. To survive you must stand out and provide a service that others do not. Perhaps Google+ has made a mistake by turning itself into something that is almost a clone of Facebook. But it is also a fact that Google+ cannot avoid trying to become like Facebook for the simple reason that Facebook is hugely successful. It has more than 800 million users.

The report from Chitika clearly states that Google+ needs to innovate more in order to succeed. Perhaps if Google can accelerate their current pace of innovation on their social network offering, Google+ could becoming a competitive alternative to its arch-rival, Facebook. Otherwise, given Facebook's clout and reputation of rapid innovation, Google+ might just be left in the dust.

However, it is not as if everything is lost for Google+. Despite the decline in the number of visitors, the site is still growing at a fairly high pace. If traffic was 100 when Google plus was invite only, then opening it up to all comers led to a 1,200 percent raise in traffic, then weve got traffic of 1,200. A 60% decline from 1,200 still leaves us with traffic of 480. If the traffic has risen by 4.8 times or 480%, then that is not at all bad.

Sneaker