The master of search, Google, is now gaining speed in yet another category — social media.

Since Google+ opened up to the public last week it has seen a significant increase in traffic. 

According to Hitwise, the social network grew 1269 percent after its “open access” announcement. Additionally, the site received almost 15 million total US visits last week alone.

The social network also jumped from the 54th most visited site in the social networking and forums category to the 8th most visited.

It will be interesting to see if Google+ maintains this momentum in the coming weeks, especially after the “new” Facebook is fully released to the public, which has already been controversial among users even though not all of the changes have been implemented yet.

Furthermore, if Google+ can sustain (and increase) this popularity, it will be note-worthy to see how businesses are eventually integrated into this social network — maybe a possible incorporation with Google Places?