Google’s social network has 540 million users

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google said Tuesday that its social network Google+ has seen a big jump in users in recent months.

Vic Gundotra, head of social at Google, said Google+ now has 540 million 30-day monthly active users, up from 390 million in May.

Google+ is also uploading 1.5 billion photos per week and that number is increasing at "an amazing rate," Gundotra also said during an event in San Francisco.

Google+, the company's social network, has struggled to keep up with the growth of Facebook since the Internet search leader launched the service in 2011.

Facebook has more than 1 billion monthly active users, while Twitter has just over 230 million.

Gundotra unveiled several new Google+ features Tuesday that are focused on sharing photos on the social network, searching them and enhancing them.

Google has added about 1,000 more words, including "hug," "kiss" and "waterfall," that its algorithm can use to track down photos that have been uploaded to Google+.

Since Google+ started, the number of videos uploaded to the social network has jumped 20 fold, Gundotra also reported.

The executive unveiled Auto Awesome Movie, a new service that helps Google+ users create a movie from a collection of video clips that have been uploaded to the social network.

Google CEO Larry Page was laser focused on social for one or two years as Facebook went on a hiring spree and prepared for an IPO, which took place in 2012.

Since then, Google has shifted focus to other projects, such as Glass, the company's cutting-edge connected glasses that operate through voice recognition.

Wall Street has embraced Google's shift, pushing the company's shares above $1,000 for the first time in recent weeks.