The positive numbers from Google echo a late , which noted that worldwide, the number of Google+ visitors jumped from 66.7 million to 110.7 million -- 66% -- between November 2011 and June.

During the same time in the U.S., comScore said the number of Google+ users rose by 82%, from 15.2 million to 27.7 million.

Of course, Google+ remains far from the heights of Facebook, which claims some 950 million users, but it's a healthy place for Google to be, analysts say.

"It was only a year ago that we opened public sign-up, and we couldn't have imagined that so many people would join in just 12 months," wrote Vic Gundotra, Google's senior vice president of engineering, in a . "While Google+ is all about creating a better experience across Google, it's also a destination."

Gundotra also announced in his post that Google has acquired Nik Software, a company largely known for the popular Instagram-like photo editing app called Snapseed.