Google, and its sidebar, Google+ have announced that registered users have reached the 90 million mark. This would seem quite a feat of marketing magic when one considers that Plus was locked at around 30 million just three months ago. So how is this huge upsurge in popularity possible?
Google has closely tied all of its products together under the Google account umbrella. So users of Google analytics, webmaster tools or even Gmail count as Google+ users. This action now makes it impossible to have an accurate count of Plus users.
We are not completely required to sign up for Google+ in order to take advantage of other Google services such as personalized search or Google Docs, but the registration process seems to cover all fronts, so why go against the current? Unfortunately this leaves another aspect of Google in the black box category.
For the time being we will all have to include Google+ in our web optimisation efforts. It is doubtful that for the short term Google+ will be a significant market factor, but it does appear to be part of a larger Google unified field theory. We have long predicted a North South split of the internet into Google and everyone else. This will include all manner of hardware, software, server-side and local applications. Had it not been for the emergence of Facebook, the Internet would already be completely Google centric.
It is basically impossible for the average user to sign up for a Google account without signing into Google+. For most people this will not be a problem or nuisance. At present, in order to avoid being a Plus member and still sign up for a Google account one must abandon the sign up process midstream, much as one does when abandoning a shopping cart. This ends the fill in process of the Google+ profile. Indeed if you value privacy to such a degree, neither Google+ or Facebook are for you. But if you are on the net to publicize or promote, you might as well get on the Google train.
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