Google Buys Polling Startup To Rejuvenate Google+ Circles

Sep 13, 2014 12:05 PM EDT | Jordan Ecarma

Google hasn't given up on its efforts to find footing in the social media sphere despite lagging far behind rival Facebook. The tech giant's latest acquisition is Polar, a startup that polls users to get their opinions on pop culture and other topics, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Founded about two years ago, Polar reported 1.1 million unique voters in September and has served more than 500 million polls in the last eight months.

The startup's polls have received votes from one in every 449 Internet users, according to Polar.

Examples of the polling questions, which let users share their answers on Facebook and Twitter, include an MTV poll with the title "Which Melanie Iglesias Photo Do You Like Better?" and an HBO poll with the title "Who is the most underestimated Game of Thrones character?" the Christian Science Monitor reported.

Polar will continue to offer its publisher tools until the end of the year, when it will shut down support for the other companies and mobile apps that use its polling services.

While Google continues to work with its Google+ network, the site of social circles still isn't getting the attention it has in the past, the Journal noted. Some top employees have left the social network recently, including three designers.

Google+ has around 300 million monthly active users, a number far behind Facebook's 1.2 billion but still ahead of Twitter, which stands at about 271 million.

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