Google + chips away at Facebook’s dominating market share

With Google posting another set of record financial figures this quarter it seems like the tech giant is unstoppable, with revenues in the UK alone reaching a massive $1.05 billion.

The company seems to be an unstoppable force on the web making gain after gain in all their main services along with Google’s search staying strong at the top spot on the web. However the most impressive gains that the company has made are in the market that they have been trying to break into for years, with the likes of Google buzz and Orkut. The social networking scene seems like the place Google always wants to be but can never quite make it. Details released with the Google Q3 financial figures may suggest that they are actually now making early headway in this area.

Google + Google’s new social network only having recently been made public is taking of like a rocket, the Facebook competitor was until recently only being trailed by Google still in development and being invite only. This did not stop people flocking still amassing a large amount of users at 10 million strong. The most recent figures released state that the users have jumped up to 40 million still well under half of Facebook’s users. If the social network keeps growing at these speeds it is surely only a matter of time before Facebook sees Google + as a rival. Unlike another fly by night attempt at social networking that Facebook is likely to see it as now.

The quarterly report also released information regarding the number of employees Google hired being 2585 this quarter showing that the company as a whole is still growing at an incredible rate. It seems Google can currently do no wrong with it’s mobile OS android also seeing quarter after quarter growth. Not only is the company still growing in numbers but also in revenue, Google’s revenue rose by 33% in Q3 2011 compared to what it was in Q3 2010.

It goes to wonder what sort of power Google will have over the Internet if it commands the sort of social networking numbers that Facebook does. Driving that sort of traffic from a social network would only prove to aid its search business.

Src: Google’s Q3 financial report

This has been a contribution from Tom Armenante, a technology fanatic. You can follow him on twitter @armenante or visit his new website, http://www.armenante.co.uk.