For less than a year, search engine giant Google (News - Alert) has been working hard to promote its new social networking offering Google+. And the latest data reveals that the efforts are paying off. According to a recent report, Bloomberg (News - Alert) News quoted Google CEO Larry Page as saying, “Google’s new social networking service is surpassing predictions, helping the company make up for its earlier lack of focus on helping people make online connections.”

In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Page said, “I’m very happy with the growth of the core Google+ network. It doesn’t mean tomorrow it’s going to be bigger than any other social network out there. That’s not realistic. But it’s growing faster, I think, than other services have.”

The Web search provider is attempting to play catch up with Facebook , which has more than 845 million users versus more the 100 million for Google+. A study by research firm ComScore Inc. shows that U.S. users spent an average 3.3 minutes on Google’s social network in January, compared to 7.5 hours on Facebook (News - Alert).

 Page added, “Obviously, our mission was organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful. I think we probably missed more of the people part of that than we should have.”

Page also acknowledged in the interview the other challenges Google is currently facing in social networking. For instance, in January, Google said that it would weave information from Google+ into some users’ search queries. That sparked a backlash from privacy groups and competitors who said the inclusion unfairly promotes Google’s products over other online information, Bloomberg reporters Brad Stone and Brian Womack revealed.

Speaking on the company’s relationship with Apple, Page expressed discomfort with some of the writing in regards to the Android operating system in the late Steve Jobs (News - Alert) biography, which was published late last year. “I think the Android differences were actually for show,” Page told Bloomberg Businessweek.

In talking to Businessweek, Page also expressed his unhappiness over a growing tendency among high technology companies suing each other over IP.