Despite the fact that Google+ is a limited set up right now, reception to the social networking service has been positive. Google CEO Larry Page said during a recent earnings call that the site has over 10 million users who share and receive more than 1 billion items daily on the site.

The growth of Google+ has been great, Page said. That s a great achievement for the team.

The defining of what a shared item is on Google+ is quite a bit more liberal than on Facebook, but people involved still seem to be enjoying it. While the service is currently chock full of tech professionals, analysts, reporters, and enthusiasts Chris Brogan, president of Human Business Works, thinks that Google is here to stay for social.

“Google finally has their social media hit,” said Brogan. “Sharing is huge.”

Brogan noted that Google+ has already become an engaged referrer, often topping Google search. Considering he has 186,000 followers on Twitter and about 13,000 on Google+, that’s significant.

“To have Google+ beat Twitter is a huge number,” he said.

Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, however, is more skeptical of it’s long term growth, labeling it more like a super Twitter rather than a Facebook alternative. Facebook s a more mature offering . . . as in the network has settled down to a kind of steady state. Google+ is still in an early adopter state. I d expect that over time it would drop down and be much closer to Facebook, said Enderle. The advantage is still in Facebook s court. [But that s] the same condition that existed with Myspace and Facebook. Just because they have the advantage now doesn t mean it s going to continue.

While Page never directly referred to Facebook, he made a pointed response when asked about elements might be difficult to migrate, like photos. “There is legacy . . . [but] Google as a company believes in users owning their own data,” he said. “Some of our competitors don’t believe in that. But we believe users will ultimately move to services that reflect their best interests and work well for them.”

Source: AdWeek.com