Google Inc. told analysts that its new social networking service now has 10 million users, just two weeks into its soft release. Although top social network Facebook has more than 750 million users worldwide, the figures still represent overwhelming growth, given that Google+ is still in its beta and trial version and is in invite-only mode.

"Growth on Google+ has been great," Google CEO Larry Page said on a conference call with analysts. "Over 10 million have joined. That's a great achievement for the team. There has been a ton of activity."

Unlike Google's previous tries with social networking, Google+ has been well received by analysts and users. Google+ mimics Facebook while adding new features including Circles and Hangouts. Aside from having Circles, which enables users to organize contacts into groups for sharing, across various Google products and services, Google+ offers Hangouts, a video chatting service that Facebook previously did not have. Facebook just last week announced a partnership with Skype to provide video chatting to Facebook users. Skype previously charged fees for its video conferencing services.

Page added that more than 1 billion items are being shared on Google+ daily. He said that the Circles feature has been popularAmong users. Page also said that the "+1" button, which integrates search results with friends' recommendations, has been clicked 2.3 billion times a day.

$9 Billion Revenues from Ads

Google on Thursday reported revenues of $9.03 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2011, an increase of 32% compared to the second quarter of 2010.

"We had a great quarter, with revenue up 32% year on year for a record breaking over $9 billion of revenue," said Page, in a press release. "I'm super excited about the amazing response to Google+ which lets you share just like in real life."

Google-owned sites generated revenues of $6.23 billion, or 69% of total revenues, in the second quarter of 2011. This represents a 39% increase over second quarter 2010 revenues of $4.50 billion.Google Network Revenues - Google's partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $2.48 billion, or 28% of total revenues, in the second quarter of 2011. This represents a 20% increase from second quarter 2010 network revenues of $2.06 billion.

The search giant said its net income in the second quarter rose to $2.5 billion, up 36% from a year earlier.

As of June 30, 2011, cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $39.1 billion.

On a worldwide basis, Google employed 28,768 full-time employees as of June 30, 2011, up from 26,316 full-time employees as of the end of the previous quarter.

New and Other Initiatives

While ads on its search engine service and partner sites continue to be Google's primary source of revenues, Google has been venturing into new initiatives in order to further boosts its dominance.

Aside from a social networking site that would take on Facebook, the world's most visited site after Google, according to Alexa rankings, Google now has a stake in mobile phones and personal computers.

Made to compete with Apple's proprietary and close-modeled operating system for mobile phones, Google's open source Android operating system is now the top platform for smartphones, as more manufacturers, including LG, Samsung and HTC are selling Android based phones. Page said that 550,000 Android devices are being activated a day and now has 160 million overall users. Market leader Nokia is retiring the Symbian and has yet to come up with new smartphones that run on the Windows 7 OS provided by Microsoft Corp., another rival of Google. Apple has yet to release a new iPhone this year, although it continues to be the second to Nokia based on number of units sold. The Android OS is also used for tablets that compete with Apple's iPad, which took more than 80% of the tablet market in 2010.

Google has also partnered with PC makers to sell laptops based on Google's Chrome or Chromium operating system and Chrome Web browser. Microsoft continues to be the market leader in OS for desktops and laptops. Samsung and Acer released the first batch of Chromebooks last month.

Google said it now has 160 million users of Chrome, a direct competitor to Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

To compete with Apple Inc., which has reported massive profits with the sale of its iPad tablet and iPhone, Google launched its Music application that would go head to head with Apple's iTunes.