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

In their quest to build a better network and remain the world’s #1 search engine and software firm the team at Google must consume tremendous amounts of electricity while always building new products.

The folks at BusinessMBA.org have created an infographic that showcases just how big Google has become.

Among some of the infographics most interesting facts are the 2-billion Killowatt-hour of electricity the company’s data centers need to consume to remain online (50% of what Hoover Dam produced in a year) and the simple fact that Google in 2010 with $29.3 billion in revenue made more money than the 28 poorest countries in the world COMBINED!

Throw in more than $2 billion earned annually from the massively growing mobile ads market and it’s easy to see why Google has managed to carve out a very nice business for themselves in a rather short period of time.

Here’s the infographic to show you more interesting fact about the Google company structure and what it takes to run the world’s fastest growing software and search firm: 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 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

With Google attempting to play catch up in the social networking space many issues have arisen over who has the better Privacy and Security protocols in place when compared to Facebook.

What the Veracode designed infographic below shows is that regardless of what system you use they tend to operate in the same type of privacy and security space, both offering virtually identical protocol options with only a few small changes to their platform.

One glaring problem with Google’s system; they store data for 18 months after you delete your account however unlike Facebook they also offer HTTPS (Secured connections) as a default option rather than a Facebook opt-in request (not all Apps on Facebook work in HTTPS mode).

Here’s the Infographic so you can judge which network is better for privacy and security: 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

Google on Monday began rolling out a new version of Google Reader which provides a brand-new design with deep Google+ integration.

Taking ques from their recently designed Gmail and Google Calendar makeovers the Google Reader app features a sparse design that highlighted Google+ sharing functionality while still retaining an interface Google Reader fans will find familiar.

The Google +1 button has replaced where the “Like” button use to stand. Google Reader users who are signed in and members of Google+ can also choose which of their Google+ circles to share articles to using Google+ snippets.  read more