July 13, 2011, 7:52 AM — Just two weeks old, Google's social network is generating a tidal wave of curiosity and excitement. And that level of interest may have social networking giants like Facebook and Twitter getting a little anxious.
" Google+ is getting a lot of attention, particularly in techie circles,' said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. "Since these are the circles that Facebook and Twitter employees circulate in, all of this attention must be causing them at least a little bit of anxiety."
He added that no one at the other social networks should be in a panic, but they should be paying close attention to the momentum that Google+ seems to be building.
"We're not talking 'waking up in the middle of the night screaming anxiety,' " said Olds, "It's more of the 'tossing and turning before falling asleep' variety at this point."
After launching as an invitation-only field trial , Google has left its Invite mechanism open for a few more days. Users are finding slews of notices that new people have joined the site and have added them to their circles. Headlines are popping up proclaiming on both tech and mainstream news sites that Google has overcome its social networking slump, while other sites focus on Google+ taking on Facebook , or Google+ taking on Twitter.
Google+ is filled with posts from users commenting on the new service, offering tips to other users and making suggestions to Google. Some comments include tips on how to organize contacts or how to scroll to the next post in a user's stream. Users are also posting funny videos and cartoons about Google+ taking down Facebook and Twitter.
A Computerworld reporter has been receiving requests from colleagues and total strangers who want an invitation to join the new social network.
"I think Google is playing the 'exclusive club' card very well with Google+," Olds said. "It's really helped them create some buzz around it."
More buzz went up this week when an unofficial study was posted claiming that Google+ has already grabbed 10 million users.
Google has not released any statistics about the number of people who have joined Google+. The company has remained tightlipped about everything from the number of users to bugs that Google engineers might be finding in the system, or about any upcoming changes.
But that's not stopping people from conjecturing about it. It didn't stop at least one person from spending quite a bit of time trying to calculate his own numbers. Paul Allen, the founder of Ancestry.com and not the Microsoft co-founder, has been receiving a lot of attention on Google+ for his estimate that Google+ has already gained about 10 million users.
According to Allen , who based his numbers on a complex calculation of U.S. census data and the 100 to 200 of the most popular surnames, worldwide users hit 7.3 million on Sunday. That's up from 1.7 million users on July 4, which would represent an increase of 350% in just six days, Allen wrote.
"I project that Google will easily pass 10 million users [Tuesday] and could reach 20 million users by this coming weekend if they keep the Invite button available," Allen wroteon Google+. "As one G+ user put it, it is easy to underestimate the power of exponential growth."
In an email to Computerworld, Google would not say if Allen's numbers are accurate or even in the ballpark. A spokeswoman simply said the company has not disclosed any numbers.
