Google+ was launched in July 2011 and since then it recorded growth month over month. In october 2011 it officially crossed the 40 million users mark and steadily keeps growing.

However there is constant criticism from some that although google+ got millions and millions of users but only some of them were active users (means users just signed up and never returned). More statistics came out of 3rd parties like HitWise and comScore proved these were baseless claims.  You could also read our Google+ traffic plunges 60% article that explains the difference.

But Google never bothered by these claims, instead they stay focused (a smart thing to do) on improving the network, appealing to celebrities (Black Eyed Peas hangout, SRK hangout, etc..), releasing features (the latest being Google+ pages,etc..) and adding social touch across all other Google products (for eg. google reader, blogger, etc).

Google+ traffic (courtesy: Hitwise)

For the month of Nov 2011, we now have new statistics released by hitwise.

Google+ active users (courtesy: Hitwise)

Interesting new statistics data(according to Hitwise)

• Google+ has recorded the highest traffic in terms of total US visits for week ending Nov 12th 2011
• Week ending Nov 12th 2011 received more than 6.8 million total US visits
• 5% increase vs previous week
• 25% increase vs previous month
• US traffic has increased 3%
• Average time has increased 15% in Nov 2011 vs Oct 2011
• Referral from other Google products increased significantly
• 7 out of 10 referral traffic came from Google products (google search, gmail, youtube, maps, docs, profiles, news and picasa web albums respectively)
• Returning visitors to Google+ has increased 18% in Nov 2011 vs Oct 2011
• Last week 74% of traffic to Google+ was from active users
• This data doesn’t include mobile or traffic through Google+ bar