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Google, the most popular Web site on earth, is worried about the secondmost popular site. That, of course, would be Facebook. Why else would Google keep trying, over and over again, to create a social network of the same type? Orkut, Jaiku, Wave, Buzz — Google has lobbed forth one fizzled flop after another. And now there's Google+. It's the latest Google "we wanna be Facebook" project.
The difference is, this one's got a real shot. Instead of throwing open its doors with a big splash, as it did with the hopelessly confusing Wave and the privacy-challenged Buzz, Google is letting Google+ seep into the world virally. You can't yet just go sign up; you have to be invited by someone who's already a member. Even so, Google+ already has millions of members. That's not quite 750 million (Facebook's current tally), but watch out for the network effect.