• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, January 20, 2012

Google’s big push into social networking appears to be gaining traction, with the news that Google+ now has over 90 million registered users, according to CEO Larry Page, who announced the figure during Google’s earnings presentation on Thursday.

While this number tells us nothing about engagement, including time spent or number of visits per user, Page did claim that “engagement on Plus is also growing tremendously.” Again, this statement is entirely relative so it doesn’t tell us much, beyond the fact that Google+ is indeed growing.

The latest figure for registered users is more than twice the last number, 40 million, disclosed by Google on October 13. It is also a good deal higher than the independent estimates provided by Paul Allen of Ancestry.com based on his analysis of surnames: Allen pegged Google+ at 62 million users in late December, and forecast growth to over 80 million by February. Meanwhile comScore says that Google+ attracted 67 million unique visitors in the month of November alone -- a figure more in line with Google’s own estimates.

Judging by the figures provided by Page, Google+ is already outstripping Allen’s estimates, which is especially noteworthy considering Allen’s optimistic long- term outlook, which has Google reaching 400 million users by the end of the year. Considering the length of time involved, that compares quite favorably with Facebook’s 800 million users -- a size that took the social network juggernaut nine years to achieve.