Google+ is arguably a better and more enjoyable social network than Facebook, yet it has never really caught on. There may be tons of users on the site but only a handful of them continuously post or update any aspect of their profile. As it tries to come up with ways to make the network better, Google is introducing a view count to profiles.
Next to a user’s follower count will be “views” which displays the number of times that other people have seen the profile, pictures, and posts of a particular user.
A blog post from Eddie Kessler announced that the total view count would display views from October 2012 and even though some are calling it an inaccurate statistic, it is still interesting to see how many people have viewed a user.
Disabling the feature is possible and can be done by making sure that “Show how many times your profile and content have been viewed.” is not checked in the settings area.
Facebook may already offer the ability to see how many people have allegedly seen a post but the integration of statistics into Google+ will make the site better. As of right now, only the total view count is displayed which means that people cannot see if a certain photo or post is particularly popular.
The new statistic is right out in the open, so if you do not have impressive view numbers, then it may be a good idea to keep the feature off. In some ways, it would have made more sense for Google to hide the number (at least somewhat) rather than displaying it directly next to the followers count.
Now that brands and popular individuals have a way to display their importance and figure it out themselves, maybe Google+ has a greater chance of succeeding, though more will have to be added and improved for it to be like Facebook or Twitter.
Question – Is the total view count metric of any interest to you?
Summary: Google+ now includes a total view count statistic. It will display how many times people have viewed your profile, posts, and pictures. Users can disable it, if they wish.
image credit: pando