Social networking site Google+ has 400 million members as of September 2012, according to Mashable.com. But only 100 million of those members are active on the site monthly.
This pales in comparison to social networking giant Facebook, which Mashable.com reports as having 955 million active users in July of 2012.
Nicholas Geidner, an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media, said that he mainly joined Google+ for the novelty of it. Geidner was pleased with what he discovered.
" ... I liked it. I liked the idea of it," he said. "I liked how it organized and segmented your network. Because I think that's important, and I don't think that's well done on Facebook or LinkedIn and a number of the other social networks out there."
Geidner also studies new media and social networking. He said that a possible reason that Google+ has not gained more popularity was a decision Google made at the beginning of the introduction of Google+
" ... At the beginning they really got excitement ... (and) ... news organizations started joining (Google+) ... and then Google said (they were) not ready for (corporate) accounts yet, and they closed all of those accounts," Geidner said. "My stream went from being a decent amount of information ... to being just my 15 friends who were actually using Google+, and that's when I stopped using (it) ... It just didn't give me enough content."
Denae D'Arcy, a graduate student in journalism and electronic media, said there are not enough people she knows on the site to motivate her to use it.
"I don't have any friends that use it (Google+), and I think if I had more friends that used Google+ then I would use it because social media is a way to connect," said D'Arcy, who also is a graduate teaching associate in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media.
Although she does not use Google+ herself, D'Arcy said it could be a useful service for students.
"Any social media where students can ... use the tool ... to connect ... would help (them)," she said.
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Google+ finds practicality in social media | News