Google+ vs. Facebook vs. Twitter: Google+ Passes Twitter, Becomes 2nd Largest Social Network After Facebook

Google+, the search giant's proprietary sharing site, has exceeded expectations, surpassing Twitter and becoming the second-largest social network, behind only Facebook, according to a report by Trendstream, a market research firm.

YouTube, another Google property, now ranks third, with Twitter coming in fourth place.

"The report estimates Facebook's active users in December 2012 at 693 million, compared to 343 million for Google+," writes Forbes. "The post does not break out the number of YouTube active users, but from the chart it appears to be approximately 280 million."

Of course, Facebook's users are far more active than those on Google+, posting much more content than users of the relatively new social network that Google seems determined to thrust upon Gmail users.

"Every action that you take logged in as a social network's user can make you an 'active user,'" writes Forbes.

"Facebook has made its accounts a virtual single sign-in for a a big chunk of the web, and Google is catching up, particularly when it changed its account system last year to merge all of its products, YouTube and Docs included, into singular accounts."

While Google+ is increasing its user base, there are still concerns about the quality of content available. "I think that Google+ is working particularly hard to address this, and Google+ contribution is becoming increasingly important as Google ties search, along with all of their other services, together with Google+ being the glue that binds them all," said Brett Petersen, Consulting Director of GlobalWebIndex.

But with the growth of the social behemoths, smaller, local networks are experiencing a dearth of users, especially overseas. "Local social networks in various countries are seeing a dip in usage, up to 57 percent in some cases, particularly in China," writes PC World. "This is apparently due to a saturation of the market and shift towards more informal social media including blogs and forums, where privacy is easier to maintain from growing government clampdowns."

As Google and Facebook battle for control of data worldwide, will they become monopolies in their own rights?