Google Plus Doesn't Add Up

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- When it comes to web sites and apps, active users totals issued by companies are often hard to interpret, unreliable or just plain jacked up.

But you wouldn't know it from reading the business media, which tend to pass the count along unquestioned--to the detriment of those who want to know what's really going on.

What is really going on, for example, with Google(GOOG)? Well, it's hard to tell, at least if you read much of the business media. Marketwatch(NWS), for example, mentioned that Google CEO Larry Page "touted" the performance of Google+, the company's social media effort, but gave no fill-out.

The Wall Street Journal went the more typical route. They noted that the service has "more than 90 million users, up from 40 million three months ago, and 80% of those users 'engage' with their accounts every week." Still, that's not enough. How is engagement defined?

In the second paragraph of an excellent story on the issue, All Things D writes: "Sometimes I feel like it would be easier to find the Fountain of Youth than get apples-to-apples metrics about Web site and app usage." Indeed.

With Google, it's hard to tell with a degree of certainty. But it appears to All Things D (and me) that if you registered for Google+ and used another Google product while still signed on, you're counted in the number of active Google+ users. This is not total gamesmanship on Google's part. They are trying to get users to use multiple products. Still, the percentage of active Google+ users probably is not as breathtaking as it first appears.

We know that registered users counts are bunk. A lot of users register and never come back. But even active user counts are open to interpretation. Always proceed with caution, even if the media don't.

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