Google's social network, Google+ is one of the fastest-growing nets ever -- if Paul Allen's calculations are correct. Allen, of Ancestry.com, has an interesting methodology for calculating the number
of Google+ members. He sampled surnames from the U.S. Census Bureau data and compared it to surnames of Google+ users. By comparing surname popularity in the U.S. with the number of users on Google+
with each surname, he guessed the percentage of the U.S. population that signed up for Google+.
Then Allen calculated a ratio of U.S. to non-U.S. users to generate an estimate for
the number of Google+ users worldwide. The result? Google+ has approximately 9.5 million users worldwide, with 2.2 million joining in the past 32 to 34 hours, according to Allen's calculations. If the
numbers are real -- and Google has yet to comment -- they may suggest another area conquered by the search giant.