Google+ Basically a Ghost Town

Google+ launched with ambitions of competing with Facebook, and if you listen to CEO Larry Page, it's on pace to do just that, with 90 million users registering since June. But there's one big problem, the Wall Street Journal observes: Those 90 million users aren't actually doing anything once they've signed up. According to comScore, the average Google+ visitor spends just three minutes a month on the site, compared to six or seven hours for Facebook.

"Google+ "does not have the same degree of vibrancy that Facebook, Twitter, or even Pinterest has at the moment," says one media buyer. To wit, Zynga says the growth of CityVille and Zynga Poker players—both games are now offered on Google+—has been sluggish. But Google insists that Google+ is more than a destination website, arguing that it adds value to other Google services like search and YouTube. "We're growing by every metric we care about," said one Google VP. (More Google Plus stories.)