Google+ tops Twitter's shared news items, Pew says

Technology

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from the L.A. Times

July 8, 2011 | 6:19 pm

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Google+ may only have tens of thousands of users so far, but the new social network has created a big buzz on Twitter, according to a new study.

For the week of June 27 through July 1, Google+ was the topic of 35% of all news links tweeted, according to the Pew Research Center Project for Excellence in Journalism's New Media Index.

Other popular news items during that period included global warming with 11% of news link tweets, the hacking of an Al Qaeda website with 9%, the European economy with 9% and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who is vying for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, with 5%, the New Media Index said in a blog post on its findings.

Google is taking a hype-building approach to growing Google+'s user base by limiting the number of users and only letting people in on the basis of an invite system that seems to open and close without much warning.

The approach seems to at least have people talking -- er, tweeting -- about the new social network, but sharing links and spending time actually using a new social network are not the same thing and Facebook right now is the social media king with more than 750 million users.

Until Google+ opens up to the public, we won't know for sure just how effective the new network is at finally cracking the social media space for the search giant.

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