• ReadWriteWeb, Tuesday, September 27, 2011 12:49 PM

If not yet taking social market share, Google is certainly getting traction with Google Plus. As of last week, visits to the social network increased by 1269% since its first week of operation, according to new data from Experian Hitwise. What's more, the site received 15 million U.S. visits -- up from 1.1 million the week before.

"Google Plus went from ranking 54th in Hitwise's Social Networking and Forums category to ranking 8th in just one week," remarks ReadWriteWeb. "That's not all the traffic, either." No, the stats don't include mobile users or visits from "the ubiquitous black Google toolbar," according to ReadWriteWeb.

By Paul Allen's estimates, Google Plus currently has about 43 million users -- but no one knows how many of those users have ditched Facebook, if any. The Hitwise data does show that Google Plus has a surplus of "influencers" and "early adopters," which -- were the service not so new -- could be seen as a lack of traction with average users, i.e., most users.

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