Google+ is cruising along these days and that fact was buoyed by Google CEO Larry Page on Thursday when he announced during the company’s quarterly finance meeting that Google+ is now serving more than 90 million users.

When you take into consideration the fact that Google+ was reporting just 40 million users in October 2011 the improvement in usage is astounding.

In December 2011 Google+ watcher Paul Allen predicted that the social network had 62 million users while Experian Hitwise has predicted 400 million users by the end of 2012. read more

We knew it was only a matter of time before Google+ and Google search were integrated in some way and on Tuesday Google rolled out that system. Under the deeply integrated platforms Google users who are logged into their Google+ accounts and to a smaller extent their other Google accounts will now see general search results along with the option to find results based off their Google+ friends network.

Using the search Google+ users can search their circles, photos, posts and a huge list of other on-site options.

Google has dubbed their new search platform Search Across The World and have given users the option to not just search a public database of websites, photos and other information but also a more private web consisting of your friends, co-workers, family and other Google+ followers.

To ensure there is no confusion over the new system all Google+ results are clearly annotated as such for example if searching for a photo (see above) you can see which friend shares the picture of the dog breed you are searching for.

Here’s a video showing the awesome capabilities of the new Google+ search integration for Google.com: read more

Google+ still has a long way to go before the social network catches up to Facebook but recent numbers have proven once again that decent growth potential is being witnessed by the team at Google.

Experian Hitwise reported on Monday that the social network more than doubled it’s traffic in December. On their Twitter account the Experian team added:

“Google+ total US visits reach more than 49 million in Dec-11, biggest month to date & up 55% compared to Nov-11 ow.ly/i/oT3R.” read more

Britney Spears on Friday became the first Google+ celebrity to officially surpass the one million circles milestone.

The find, made by The Next Web also reveals that Spears is the most followed person on Google+

Based on current numbers and the time since her page went live she’s literally receiving thousands of new followers every single hour of the day.

While Britney has the most fans on the service his content is hardly the type of marketing genius we would have hoped to find from a leading Google+ user. For example here’s her most recent Google+ update:  read more

With the 2012 election cycle quickly approaching the team at Google+ has posted a guide for politicians and candidates, a step-by-step set of instructions for creating the perfect politician page for interacting with voters and constituents.

According to Google the guide is meant to help candidates:

“Promote an issue(s), platform or cause across the web.”

In the guide Google shows off the pages of Mitt Romney, Sen. Bernie Sanders and others who have already taken advantage of the Google+ platform to spread their messages. Other politicians also using Google+ at this time including President Obama and Newt Gingrich. read more

Google on Thursday released their first Google+ commercial and in the TV spot the company attempts to convince users that their system is like “sharing but in real life.”

First aired during the Lions vs. Packers football game the spot focuses on the ways in which Google+ is different than Facebook, for examine how Circles allows users to organize their friends, acquaintances, colleagues, family and others into different circles, while also emphasizing the use of Google Hangouts.

Google has had a great deal of success with commercials in the past, including their Google Parisian Love Super Bowl commercial which brought a great deal of positive reviews to the company’s evolving search platform. Google also launched a Google Chrome TV commercial over the summer that featured pop star Justin Bieber.

Here’s the Google+ Sharing But Like Real Life commercial: read more

Google Plus is the social media service that Google has recently released and it has been suggested that this service is a direct move against Facebook which is the leading social media website today.

Much praise should be given to the Google team for the constant innovations they seem to bring out; moreover the smooth roll out of Google Plus was also slickly done. Instead of launching it to the entire world, they selected certain countries first of all and then as and when issues arouse they solved them in a timely manner.

Also rather than launching the finished product with all its features, they did the release of Google Plus in a more progressive way so that people could get used to the new social media service without getting confused by to many features. read more

Google on Monday rolled out a new feature that allows Google+ members to automatically chat with any Google Circle member who also has them listed in their Circles.

The new feature can be found in the bottom left-hand corner of your Google+ profile and is meant to mimic the Twitter direct message feature which allows Twitter members to send messages to people who are following them.

As Google explains the new product:

Google Chat makes it easy to chat with people you have relationships with. In Google+, you can chat with anyone in your Circles who also has added you to their Circles. And, when you’re not using Google Plus, you’ll still be able to chat with them using Google products including, Gmail, the Google Talk client, iGoogle, Orkut and 3rd party apps. read more

Newly elected Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel calls himself an “early adopter” of technology and social media and on Thursday he proved that point when he became the first mayor in the country to feature his very own Google+ brand page, an option that Google has just begun to roll out.

Speaking of his new Google+ presence the Chicago mayor said:

“This is an exciting new way for us to continue an open, public dialogue with Chicagoans and the 40 million people using Google+,” and “We will continue to search for new, innovative ways for the public to stay connected and hold government accountable.” read more

Google+ users who want to share a photo from a friends account no longer need to share an entire Google+ post thanks to a new feature that rolled out on Thursday.

According to Vincent Mo, Google+ Photos engineering lead users can now click on any image found on a Google+ post at which point they are offered the option to share the photo with the +1 button.

The new feature is located right next to the “Tag people” and “Share” options making it simple and effective to use.

Google points out that iPhone app users can already take advantage of the new features while the Android and mobile site versions will be launched in the near future. read more