Google+ has passed the milestone of 100 million monthly active users for the first time, after less than 18 months online.

The search giant’s entrant into the world of social networks was quickly labelled a ghost town after it debuted in June last year, however it now boasts a total over 400m registered users.

With a little help from my friends

The large catchment area that includes Gmail and Search has helped Google+ catch up to the major players quickly, reaching milestones faster than both Twitter and Facebook in their early days.

However there is still a long way to go, as Twitter’s active user base is almost double at around 170m, while Facebook leads the pack at almost one billion.

Global influence

As the number of active users continue to grow, Google will be hoping its weight in numbers pays off for the social network to be a destination for news and discussion, without the 140-character limitation of Twitter or the personal side of Facebook.

The updated user statistics were released in a Google+ post from Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Engineering for Google, where he also announced the company’s acquisition of Nik Software, the makers of the photo app Snapseed.

Whether the fact that Vic Gundotra used Google+ to announce the purchase was a hint to any future integration remains to be seen, but Google will continue to push the network in the hope it one day fights to the top.

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