Guess that's what Google+ looks like? (geekword.net)

Wait, so a lot people are actually using Google+? If we're to believe a new report from the not-fake sounding GlobalWebIndex research firm, the Google Ponzi scheme is actually the second-largest social networking site in the world, with 359 million active users. That's up 33 percent since last summer, when it logged 270 million users.

The largest social network, however, is the Social Network itself: Facebook. It registered 700 million users, a slight irregularity from CEO Mark Zuckerberg's claim last October that it had one billion users. Twitter slipped into third place with 297 million users, but is finding success in courting an older demographic. GlobalWebIndex said that Twitter is quickly growing with the elderly, which means your grandma might be a closeted #TeamFollowback member.

Google+’s figures should come with a footnote, though, since it has created its own online ecosystem with its plethora of rainbow-colored products:

Google accounts are ubiquitous, linking massive services like Gmail and YouTube within the same space as its social network.

So, log-in to one service, and you're signed-in to all, like Google+. That's one way to game the system.

Mr. Davis (Photo: Twitter.com/mpd)

Today, Kohort, the super-stealth social network for groups, emailed early adopters who had registered usernames and asked them to officially join the site. Last year, Betabeat told you that Kohort, founded by former venture capitalist Mark Peter Davis, netted $3 million from a number of high profile investors like IA Ventures, RRE, FF Capital, David Tisch and David Cohen. The supposed "Meetup killer" made its beta version public back in July.

The site is based around public and private groups. Kohort lets group members post to memos to the group, much like a bulletin board. These memos are supposed to help organize meetups and group activities. Original plans called for a way to put similar groups into networks, but that remains to be seen in this early version.

One kitschy feature for moderators is the ability to change the title of group members to anything that they wish. For example, a group named "6AM Club," led by Ben Weller, a senior developer at Kohort, calls all of its six members "Broey Bros":

None of these people look like any bros that we know.

The site does almost everything Meetup.com does, but surprisingly, it has turned out to be a more efficient version of Google+. In order to organize groups, Google+'s forces users to manually place all of your friends into circles that remain private and only seen by you. While this is good for splitting up your friends into friends and frenemies, some people just don't want to put the effort into categorizing their friends. The site has definitely suffered because of this.

But on Kohort, the circles (or "groups" in this case) are the central organizing point--your friends join the groups that they know they should be a part of, or join ones they're interested in anyways. Group leaders can also send out invitations to all of the people that they think should be group members. Add some nice chat capabilities, and Kohort could poach Google's tech industry user base and have something really special on their hands.

It might be more user-friendly that Google since you don't have to do the organizing manually. Of course you still have to rely on organizers to do the heavy lifting for you. It's hard to tell what the site will look like because right now it's all groups related to Davis.

The three most popular and active groups on the site so far are the Columbia Venture Community, the New York Venture Community, and the Harvard Venture Community. Davis is the founder of the first two of those enture communities.

There are definitely some groups on the site not focused on tech which show potential for a really personal user experience. For example, this one:

This fraternity alumni group is one of the site's featured groups and is organized by none other than Kohort's CEO, Mr. Davis. Group members are labeled as "Snus," which is a TFM. Guess you can take the VC out of the founder, but there's no way you're taking the frat out of the boy.

Google+ Local (via screencap)

And so Google's acquisition of Zagat finally bears fruit: Your parents' favorite dining guide is now the backbone of Google+ Local, which is replacing Google Places. So SoMoLo.

Here's the deal: Users can still write reviews. The integration with Zagat means those reviews will now be factored into the familiar score ranging from 1 to 30. Plus, expect some actual professionally written material thrown into the mix. (Imagine that.) The integration with Google+ means you'll also see reviews written by anyone in your Circles. (The bad news is you'll get the phantom ding from any unclosed Gchat conversations, which drives us batty.) 

Presumably they'll soon integrate with Google Maps, since Google Places is destined for the dustbin of Internet history, but it doesn't look like they're made the transition just yet.

Marissa Mayer explained to the New York Times that Google ultimately hopes to offer “pages for all known places" and that "Getting local search right is important, and to do that you need great reviews." What, and providing a sounding board for all your neighborhood's crankiest cranks doesn't achieve that aim?

The company's motives are also pretty obvious: According to Ms. Meyer, 20 percent of Google searches are for local information. The number on mobile: 40 percent. Losing those folks to competitors would not be a great outcome for the Goliath of search.

But a little playing around suggests Google has a ways to go before achieving first-stop restaurant reviewer status. Zagat might make for a good backbone, but there are still plenty of results that're just user generated (and not as extensive as, let's say, Yelp.) For example, this reporter looked up a random burek restaurant in her neighborhood and found underwhelming user-generated reviews and no overall Zagat rating. Another new hotspot (the branch campus to LIC's Dominie's Hoek) appeared not to have a page at all.

Back to Yelp for us for now.

Yesterday, we took note of Zuck's regarding of Google Plus as a Facebook competitor, or as he put it:

“Google, I think, in some ways, is more competitive and certainly is trying to build their own little version of Facebook.”

SNAP. Mashable takes note this morning of an interview that ran ostensibly in response to Facebook's press tour, but really acted as a platform for Bradley Horowitz—VP of Product at Google+—to fire shots back:

“We are delighted to be underestimated,” he said. “It’s served us very well to date.”

Again, via Mashable, you can watch the nerd running Google+ lay the smack down. He looks like the Verizon guy.

Look at these ambitious nerds with their passive-aggressive smacktalk. Hopefully, this won't end in bloodshed.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek