Google sheds light on Zuckerberg's yoyo-ing Google+ account

THE EVOLVING MELODRAMA of Mark Zuckerberg's Google+ account has taken another turn with one of Google's people blaming his rapid in and out movements on a glitch, as opposed to a privacy lockdown.

Vic Gundotra, Google SVP of engineering, shouted down from his lofty position as Number 4 most popular Google+'er to tell us, "Yes - this was glitch that affected small number of people - those with very high followers and few people in their circles."

Gundotra was responding to earlier stories about Zuckerberg dropping off the Google+ rankings along with a number of Google executives. We speculated that Zuckerberg, that well-known advocate of privacy online, had locked down his account in order to stop others from seeing what he was doing and who were his friends. Oh, the irony.

However, Gundotra's reference to a glitch indicates that young Zuck's closed profile was down to an issue with the Google+ software, rather than due to any action he took. And, by mid-week his profile was open for all and sundry to view once again.

It's been a week of revelations about Google+, which we are still experimenting with, including the confirmation that it had 10 million users, a fact revealed in Google's earnings report, and the realisation that almost 90 per cent of its users are male. Come and get 'em girls.

These are the most popular Google+ users as of lunchtime Friday, along with their follower numbers: Mark Zuckerberg, 184,842, Larry Page, 94,913, Sergey Brin, 71,781, Vic Gundotra, 47,989, and Robert Scoble, 47,239.

Given the testosterone that these guys must be giving off, it is perhaps reassuring to see Felicia Day at number nine with 37,043 followers. µ