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Google+ is Growing Like Crazy

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Re: Google+ is Growing Like Crazy

#3
post #2

The methodology offered in the comments, of googling for http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&biw=1366&bih=653&#... and taking the number of results returned for the number of users, seems more direct. Currently that returns about 6.5 million users, which is in the same ballpark.

I see about 2.8 million results from that query, but I'm not surprised the number changes a lot. The result counts are a very rough approximation calculated on the fly, and shouldn't be relied on for more than order-of-magnitude estimates.

The last name method is precise, but of questionable accuracy; the result count is probably more accurate, but very imprecise. Take your pick :).

Re: Google+ is Growing Like Crazy

#5
My surname is so rare that by United States government policy it does not show up on federal lists of surnames by frequency.

http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/dist.all.last

I am on Google+.

A New York Times article

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/17/us/17surnames.html

establishes some context on the frequency of various surnames in the United States. English surnames are predominant, but Spanish surnames are gaining relative frequency.

P.S. Responding to another comment here, surely as more companies get into social networking, and social networking becomes a growing share of all Internet activity, third-party organizations will have to agree on standardized methodologies for estimating users of each service, to guide advertisers and investors, and to answer the questions of journalists. For the moment, I notice that Google+ has already achieved a status previously achieved for me by HN and by Facebook--I tend to keep a tab open to it at all times while I am browsing the Web.

Re: Google+ is Growing Like Crazy

#8
post #2

The methodology offered in the comments, of googling for http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&biw=1366&bih=653&#... and taking the number of results returned for the number of users, seems more direct. Currently that returns about 6.5 million users, which is in the same ballpark.

I see about 2.8 million results from that query, but I'm not surprised the number changes a lot. The result counts are a very rough approximation calculated on the fly, and shouldn't be relied on for more than order-of-magnitude estimates. The last name method is precise, but of questionable accuracy; the result count is probably more accurate, but very imprecise. Take your pick :).

That's interesting; if I anonymize by searching through Google Sharing, I also get 2.8 million results. Searching from my own IP address (though without being logged in) still gives 6.5 million.
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