Google+ sees big boost in December traffic

Google+ is seeing its traffic hit record levels in some key regional markets, according to traffic-monitoring firm Hitwise.

The company said that its US traffic metrics service logged the best Google+ performance ever over the month of December 2011. In the US alone, the social network saw its traffic jump 55 per cent from November to top out at 49 million hits.

The new figures represent a much-needed jump in traffic for Google's social networking platform. Launched in early July, the service had seen traffic numbers stall in its first months on the market.

As recently as August, Hitwise logged fewer than 10 million monthly US visits for the service.

Touted as a more secure and customisable alternative to the wildly successful Facebook, Google+ allows users to organise their contacts into a set of configurable "circle" groups. Each circle can then be configured with a set of rules and protections that determine whether contacts can view certain status updates and media posts.

Despite the slow start, Google stuck by the service. In October, chief executive Larry Page promised that the company would undertake a series of updates and overhauls that would integrate Google+ with some of the company's more popular online platforms.

Among the updates to reach the platform in recent months are improved integration with the Google Apps platform and the addition of new collaboration capabilities for the Hangouts conferencing feature.

More recently, the company introduced an overhaul for the Google homepage designed to give users faster access to their Google+ accounts.