Google “shocked” at success of Google+

After reporting a week ago that Google+ was already up to 10 million users, someone at the search engine has told Business Insider that Google is shocked — though pleasantly so — by that figure.

Just like us outsiders, he said that doubters inside the company worried their co-workers were about to release yet another Buzz-like dud.

Mashable reckons it's no coincidence that Facebook launched a new site this week that walks potential advertisers through the process of advertising and marketing on the social network.

Perhaps sensing the momentum being generated by the newest social networking kid on the block, Facebook on Tuesday debuted Facebook.com/business, a step-by-step online guide — or "online education center" — that tells users how to "create targeted ads and deals, and interact with customer feedback online," according to Gigaom.

Meanwhile, Business Insider's Google source said the company credited two factors for the success of Google+: "a stronger-than-expected anti-Facebook sentiment — best typified by this xkcd comic strip — and invite-only membership."

The invite-only membership helps because it keeps early adopters from complaining about how little content there still is on Google+.

"When you show up to an invite-only party and you're the only one there, it's not weird."

Meanwhile, Google appears to be throwing everything into its new social venture, making Google+ "omnipresent on its products" by way of a complete redesign of the navigation bar, Mashable points out.

Sounds to us like more than mere experiments with early adopters — a major battle of the social media giants brewing, perhaps.