Despite Google's efforts to integrate its "social layer" across all of its services, Google+ trails every other major social networking platform. A new report out from Gigya pegs Google+ at only a two percent share of social sharing, behind even LinkedIn, which holds a three percent share. The social platform is in fifth place among the major social outlets.
Facebook dominates the social sharing scene, according to Gigya, with fully 50 percent of shared content based in the world's largest social network. Twitter has roughly half the share of Facebook, followed by Pinterest, LinkedIn, and finally Google+. In e-commerce, Facebook is actually second to Pinterest, but Facebook still holds the top position in media and publishing.
Launched in 2011, Google+ has grown to become the second-largest social network in the world, behind only Facebook. Google has continually updated the service, adding features and tweaking it to improve user engagement. These tweaks and additions, though, have had mixed effects in driving continued use of the site, and it still occupies a rather small segment of mindshare, with some observers questioning the degree to which the large user base for Google+ is actually using the service.