Opening up Google+ to the masses brought in a huge influx of new visits last week, finds Hitwise.The researcher estimates the site received about 15 million U.S. visits for the week ending Sept. 24 vs. 1.1 million the previous week. The network’s 13-fold gain in visits came five days after it opened the site to the public. Research from Google+ watcher Paul Allen showed a 30% jump in users in two days and a base of 43 million users.
Google’s decision to open up Google+ came the same week that rival Facebook announced several bold changes to its site. The boost in visitors puts Google+ at number eight among most-visited social networking sites, right behind MySpace and up from number 54 the previous week.
Hitwise’s latest report is much more upbeat than one it issues in late August. At that point, the site’s growth and time on site appeared to have peaked in mid-July. Hitwise does not measure mobile traffic to the site.
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