It appears to be a big fat minus for Google+ fledgling social network as users drop as much as 40%, according to new analysis.
According to Aussie web apps writers 89n.com, the number of posts on Google+ has fallen from 0.68 average daily posts in July/Aug to 0.40 in mid Aug/Sept – a 41% drop in the past two months.
Google+ launched recently as a beta service, is thought to have as many as 20 million users, although have yet to confirm official numbers.
The posts peruse 89n.com’s ManageFlitter service, which ties Twitter to Google+ allows users links posts.
This acute drop, although just a small part of a much larger picture, does not bode well for the social network looking to take a bite out of Facebook’s 750 million-strong user base.
“It is also often the early adopters that drive long term adoption and to see a drop off now is not a good indication for the service’s future,” says 89n.com chief and co-founder Kevin Garber.
”7,280 people have linked their Google+ accounts to Twitter using our service,”’ he confirmed.
The company analyse new public posts every 10 minutes from users accounts that optimise ManageFlitter to integrate their Google+ and Twitter account’s.
130,059 public posts have been submitted to these accounts to date, Garber wrote on a recent blog posting.
”One possible explanation for this data is that the people integrating their Google+ accounts with ManageFlitter are all early adopter sorts that get bored once their new toys are not shiny anymore.”
‘However, this seems somewhat unlikely given the spread of Twitter followers across these accounts. It is also often the early adopters that drive long term adoption and to see a drop off now is not a good indication for the service’s future,’ Garber warned.
This comes as Google opened up API for developers, allowing them upload ready made apps directly to the network, announced on Google Code blog.
However, despite the move, which some say was badly needed, other developers are highly critical of the new API system which uses REST requests, JSON output and OAuth2 user authentification systems, saying Google ‘just doesn’t get it’ according to the Guardian.
One developer is calling for a ‘one call’ Twitter style integration system;
‘They need an API with one call, one that posts a tweet to their service. So people can hook up Twitter clients to Google-Plus, so the hundred million active Twitter users can post to Google-Plus from the comfort of whatever tools they depend on.’
