Google claims 135 million active Google+ users

Google said Thursday its social network, Google+, now has 135 million active users, up from 100 million in September.

In total, Google+, which launched in the summer of 2011, has topped more than 500 million total members, and 235 million of them are active in some form -- meaning, they have hit Google’s +1 button on one of the company’s sites, such as Google Search or the Google Play store.

“Today Google+ is the fastest-growing network thingy ever,” said Google’s Vic Gundotra, senior vice president, on a blog posted Thursday morning.

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Google+ still has quite a ways to go before catching up to Facebook’s 1-billion user status, but Google’s social network is growing at an impressive rate and is reaching similiar membership rolls as that of other social networks such as LinkedIn.

Google announced the latest figures for its social network in conjunction with the rollout of Google+’s latest feature: Google+ Communities.

Google+ Communities feature is essentially Google’s answer to Facebook Groups. Google said users can create their own Google+ Communities by clicking the “Communities” icon that will start rolling out Thursday and will appear on the left-hand column of the Google+ website.

Additionally, Google announced that Snapseed, the photo app by Nik Software, which Google acquired earlier this year, will be coming to Android Thursday and be available for free. Google also said the iPhone and iPad versions of the app will also be free starting Thursday.

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