Google+, the internet giant’s charge into the social networking sector, opened its doors fully to the public last week and was mobbed by visitors, with industry tracker Experian Hitwise reporting a 1,269 percent increase in traffic on the day after the virtual doors were thrown wide open.
Previously, entry to the site had been by invitation only.
The number of visits to Google+ tallied nearly 15 million for the week in a leap from the approximately 1.1 million logged in the prior week, Hitwise analysts concluded.
And the Hitwise data did not include mobile traffic.
“In just one week, Google+ went from ranking as 54th most visited site in our Social Networking and Forums category to 8th place,” Heather Dougherty of Hitwise claimed in a blog post.
The US social games developer Zynga was on the ground floor of the project with games that include its online poker product.
“It’s no secret we’re big fans of Google+ here at Zynga,” the San Francisco-based developer said in a blog post. “Last month we announced that we partnered with Google to bring Zynga Poker to Google+, and today we’re excited to add CityVille+ to the new game platform.”
In August, Google+ opened a gaming zone at the fast-growing social network, vying with Facebook to be the hub for people’s online lives.