Experian Hitwise dismisses fall in Google+ activity as a 'blip'

Reports that traffic and viewing time on the Google+ social network fell last week have been dismissed as a blip by an internet monitoring firm.

Experian Hitwise said that Google+ traffic for the week ending 23 July fell by about three per cent, compared with a huge 283 per cent rise the previous week, and that the amount of time each user spent on the site fell by 10 per cent.

However, an Experian Hitwise spokesman told V3 that the figures are merely a hiccup and do not include some traffic from mobile devices and platforms. He confirmed that the traffic and use trends are still upwards.

"This is a very small drop after phenomenal growth," he said. "The time per user may be down 10 per cent, but that only amounts to about 30 seconds less per visit. Traffic to the site has started to grow again."

Google+ is still in an invitation-only beta stage, and currently has about 20 million users compared to more than 750 million on Facebook. A V3 Google+ poll showed strong support for the service among readers.

Google chief executive Larry Page praised the progress of the social network during the company's last earnings call,  and said he was "super excited about the amazing response".

There have been teething problems, however. Scores of users lost their Google+ accounts and associated Gmail services over apparent policy violations. Google has since apologised and is examining ways to improve access.