This comes just under two weeks after Larry Page announced that the network had reached 90 million users. Page said that 60% of those users engage daily and 80% of them engage weekly. So according to him, we’re not talking about a majority of dead profiles here.

According to Paul Allen’s estimates, Google+ has grown more the 10% in 13 days. This bodes well for future growth, as he predicts that by the end of 2012, Google+ will be a monster:

Meanwhile, I think it’s noteworthy that Google+ membership has grown more than 10% since Jan. 19th when Larry Page announced 90 million users. I have them at 100.8 million users by the end of the day. They have been growing by more than 750,000 new users per day since the 19th, based on analysis of users with hundreds of different surnames. If that rate holds steady, Google+ will end the year with 345 million users. But as I have said before, Google has many dials and levers to use this year to increase signups and usage, including its Android 4.0 rollout. I stand by my prediction of at least 400 million users by the end of 2012.

You can check out his full rundown of why he thinks Google+ will hit 400 million users here. Allen’s methodology for estimating user data involves tracking surname popularity among U.S. Census Bureau data and comparing it with Google+. He then extrapolates a sample out to non-U.S. users. More on that here.

If anything, his previous estimates have been conservative. Before Larry Page’s announcement, he predicted that Google+ would hit 85 million users by February 1st.

These totals are indeed impressive. It probably helps that as of now, a Google account sign-up means a Google+ sign-up automatically.

Apparently, Google+ is more than just the thing that prompts Gmail users to ask “What the f*ck is that up there?” (See below)

Are you seeing more people you know on Google+? If so, are they engaged in the service? Let us know in the comments.

Its users, or are they yelpers, are the reason the service is so popular. It allows users to compare reviews for different places from similar minded yelpers. It’s not all that unique anymore with Facebook check-in and Foursquare offering similar services, but Yelp does have its diehards.

A new infographic helps us, the non-user or casual yelp user, spot the diehards among us. The yelp user who must review every restaurant they go to. The yelp user who must catalog every gas station in a 100 mile radius. To hardcore yelp users, we salute you:

From GWI:

When we looked into it further, we didn’t find anyone else who had any type of figures and Google has been suspiciously quiet since their Q3 financial statement that gave us that 40 million user number.

We did find, however, anecdotal evidence that supports GWI findings on the active Google+ user base. Firstly, there was this conversation with Don Dodge, a Developer Advocate at Google, where he states that “Any numbers you’ve heard are way low.” There are also people such as Paul Allen who are tracking the numbers of last names on Google+ to estimate subscriber figures. Allen says that Google+ subscriber numbers were growing at 2 million a day in September 2011 based on his methodology, meaning there are much more than 40 million Google+ users.

Back in September, the aforementioned Paul Allen used his model to estimate that Google+ had 50 million users.

In November, he estimated that Google+ was attracting 349,000 new users daily.

If Google+ really has broken the 150 million active user mark, where does that place it in the realm of other popular social networks? According to GWI, in third place wordwide:

There have been a few things that have happened with Google+ that could explain the meteoric takeoff. YouTube and Google+ became more integrated, for one. YouTube got the Google+ hangouts feature, and Google+ got the YouTube search feature built onto the main stream page.

Google+ launched Pages for businesses, which has thus far been a success. Allen attributes the uptick in new signups to the pages launch.

Google also built Google+ signup into its brand new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS. The Galaxy Nexus just launched with ICS, and many other Android devices are in queue for an upgrade.

As Google continues to push Google+ and build it into all aspects of Google, the user count will only climb higher. Is it possible that by this time next year, Google+ could be closing in on Facebook-type numbers? Let us know in the comments.

No, she isn’t trying to make a joke, as in “I’m from f*cking Ireland.” She’s referring to Effin, Ireland, a civil parish in County Limerick, Ireland. Kennedy says that she can list her hometown as County Limerick, but Facebook will not allow her to put “Effin.”

Has Facebook banned the word “Effin,” because it’s a slang contraction of “f*cking?”

According to the reports, Kennedy set up a page called “Please get my hometown Effin recognized,” which was promptly removed. There was speculation as to whether this was a manual or automatic deletion – but either way, she was pissed -

I would like to be able to put Effin down on my own profile page and so would many other people around the world who proudly say that they are from Effin – but it wouldn’t recognise that. It keeps coming up as Effingham, Illinois; Effingham, New Hampshire; and it gives suggestions of other places. It will recognise Limerick but I’m not from Limerick city, I’m from Effin. I’m a proud Effin woman. And I always will be an Effin woman.

All jokes about her being an “effin woman” aside, it’s clear that there’s a problem when it comes to Facebook and Effin. Right now, if I try to list my hometown as Effin, Kennedy’s observations hold true. It suggests places like Effingham, but no Effin, Ireland.

Does Facebook have a ban on the word Effin, as so many folks over the weekend have suggested?

The simple answer is no, probably not. Facebook has responded, saying -

From time to time we are alerted to oversights such as this in our mapping system. We will look to correct it to ensure places like Effin can be ‘liked’ on Facebook.

According to Facebook, it’s simply a problem of omission. Effin, Ireland is not an option because someone has failed to make it so.   It has nothing to do with some incredible Facebook aversion to profanity.  I tend to believe their explanation, and here’s why:

First, the word Effin (used in the f*cking substitute context) is all over pages.

And for that matter, so is “f*cking.”

And there are plenty of locations around the world that are just as if not more risque than “Effin” that Facebook allows users to put as their hometown. Just a few:

It’s tempting to think sinister thoughts about Facebook’s motivations, but sometimes an oversight is just an oversight.

[Image Credit]

Image via CrunchBase

I took last week off, and it was a big week for Facebook watchers. Facebook decided to change its terms of service, putting its millions of users on notice that Facebook owns their data and isn’t planning any opt-out mechanism. Now, to many observers, including Chris Brogan and me, it’s not news that free Web services own the data posted to them, but this Facebook announcement caused a firestorm, and Facebook backed off before the week was out. Watching this play out caused me to realize why Facebook is dumber than Google.

So, Mark Zuckerberg, you probably aren’t listening to me, but I have some advice: Stop being so damn innovative on privacy.

If you are able to learn anything from Google, you should learn from Google’s strategy on privacy. They actually go out of their way not to blaze trails. Google’s strategy seems to be to watch and see what is accepted and what creates firestorms (they’ve been watching you at Facebook carefully). Google wants to be a follower on privacy and learn from what others do.

Google needs to act this way, because they are so large. They are too big to experiment with privacy, which is the third rail of Internet marketing. Mark, you’re too big to do it, either.

I know that you still think of yourselves as an upstart. You wish you has a tenth of the resources and profits of Google. You think you’re still an underdog. But the public doesn’t see it that way. The public thinks you are a big fish–a huge player.

So, stop experimenting with privacy and start letting others do the testing. You can then follow along once the public tells you what they’ll accept and what they won’t. Google rarely gets pilloried for privacy missteps, even though they have control of loads of information. Figure out how to slowly and quietly do what’s acceptable rather than constantly testing the boundaries.

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It appears as if the Facebook publicity train has run out of steam, though. I say that because today’s WSJ ran a story of people who have decided that giving up Facebook for Lent is their big sacrifice. I realize that may sound a bit absurd thus my saying that this train may have run out of steam. It does, however, give some insight into just how deeply embedded social media can get in anyone’s life and makes it so attractive to marketers of just about anything.

The article talks about adults taking this journey not just the younger set that have grown up with Facebook. The amount of uncertainty, hand wringing and preparation of excuses in case of slips is both amusing and disturbing at the same time. The Pew Research Institute places the daily usage for 18-24 year olds of social media like Facebook and MySpace at 50%. That’s a strong number from any perspective but marketers want a piece of that audience for sure. Only 13% of the rest of Internet users have the same habit but they buy stuff too, right? One of those 13% is a 39 year-old electrician who says he updates his Facebook status about 20 times a day. I hope he doesn’t cross any wires in the process.

The most telling account may have been given by a college student and her experience with walking away from her social media habit (in this case Facebook) for 40 days.

College students who have abstained from Facebook for Lent in recent years say it was brutal, but valuable. Whitley Leiss, now a junior at Texas Christian University, slipped up only once, on her birthday, when she was desperate to see the well-wishes posted for her. She asked a roommate to log into her account and read them aloud while she averted her eyes from the screen. When Lent ended, she logged on to find dozens of messages waiting and strangely little desire to answer them.

“I saw all that I had missed,” Ms. Leiss said. “And I realized I hadn’t missed anything.” She also learned, she says, who her true friends were — those who would take the radically retro step of calling or emailing to stay in touch.

Since the Marketing Pilgrim crowd rates very high on the social media usage scale it begs the question “If you chose to step away from social media for 40 days what impact would it have on your life? Could you or would you even attempt to do it? If you do we’ll make sure to e-mail you while you’re away.

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This comes 39 days after the site reached 150 million active users early last month. While from some reports, Facebook was adding 600,000 new active users per day in early December, the longer term average was far below that (the dates here, except for the date on the final report, are taken from CNET stories):

• From August 26 to November 3, the site added 20 million users in 69 days, or about 290,000 per day.
• From November 3 to December 18, the site added another 20 million users in 45 days, or a little under 450,000 users per day.
• From December 18 to January 7, Facebook garnered 10 million new members in 20 days, or 500,000 new users a day.
• From January 7 to February 13, the site added 25 million new members in about 37 days, or over 675,000 new members per day.

And since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are the same stats in graphic format:

CNET reports that most of this growth comes from outside the US—and comes with a price. “Server power is expensive, especially overseas,” says CNET. Plus, a lot of these international users generate far less advertising revenue for Facebook than their US counterparts. And overall, the site is still struggling with monetization, with a recent blow setting its projected overall valuation at $3.7B (down from $15B).

Can they find the missing step in everyone’s favorite formula to make money from social networks in time to capitalize on their growth? (You know—step one: set up a social network. Step two: some magic happens. Step three: profit. They use that one in science all the time.) Or will their popularity be their undoing as more and more “expensive” users join?

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Ask.com Smart Answers are special search results placed at the top of the Ask.com search results page that have quick facts and links to authoritative content from highly respected sources.

To use the new one-click poll information, go to Ask.com and type in a question like “when do polls open?”

Then, all you need to do is click your state from the drop-down menu:

After clicking “Go”, Ask.com instantly shows the local poll hours and provides quick links to district poll locations and other voting information right on the first search results page.

According to Ask.com, this new Smart Answers feature is part of Ask.com’s mission to provide us with the best answer, the first time, every time. However, it appears that there are a “lot more clicks” required in order to actually find your polling place and where you have to vote. After going through the process on the Ask.com web site, I was then taken to the official State of Texas web site where I had to then perform an additional search at the State of Texas web site:

I hate to be cynical about all of the Ask.com new “one click” Smart Answers feature, but all that the Ask.com feature does is point you to your own state’s web site after you choose your state: that’s hardly “one click”. In fact, there are other helpful things that they could do that would make it easier, like actually recognizing your location and forwarding you directly to your state’s polling information.

What do you get when you use the Ask.com Smart Answers feature when you look to find your polling place and time?

Are you looking for marketing services such as social media optimization, search engine marketing, pay per click program management or consulting, or search engine optimization services? Feel free to contact me.

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