Thanks to the power of the suggested user list which does not include Zuckerberg

Oct 24, 2011 07:40 GMT  ·  By

Larry Page has finally managed to overtake Mark Zuckerberg, on Google Plus at least. Unflattering perhaps, but Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been the most followed (circled) person on Google's social network since the first week.

As the site grew, so did his audience. While other users had popular profiles, including Google's own CEO and co-founder Larry Page, Zuckerberg has managed to maintain his lead until now.

This despite not having posted anything publicly until now.

He could be very active with certain circles, there's no way of knowing that unless someone from that circle reveals it, but that's unlikely and whatever he may be sharing, he's doing it with very few people.

That hasn't stopped him from getting close to 600,000 people to follow him on Google+, i.e. add him to their circles.

The latest stats, plucked straight from Google+ and collected by socialstatistics.com show that Larry Page has 599,395 followers and is now the most followed person on the site.

He has just managed to overtake Mark Zuckerberg who now has 598,750 followers. The difference is small, but the trend is probably not swaying, Page's popularity will continue to grow at a faster rate than Zuckerberg and there's a simple answer as to why, the suggested users list.

The list was launched in early September, ahead of Google+ going public and becoming available to anyone that wanted to sign up. It had been invite-only for the first few months.

The suggested user list is full of people you may want to follow on the site, celebrities, influential people and people in the tech business. Larry Page is on that list. Mark Zuckerberg is not.

Google+ saw a large boost in new user soon after it opened up to everyone and all of those new users were looking for people to add to their circles. The suggested user list was there to help.

Of course, the fact that Zuckerberg is not on the list and Page is may not have anything to do with foul play, Zuckerberg hasn't posted anything while Page has had some popular posts in the past few months.