Google’s social networking tool Google+ has launched its updated look – along with figures claiming that the would-be competitor to Facebook and Twitter now has 170 million registered users.

The new-look Google+ has a revamped landing page tracking news and trends, and for brands the network seems to be building an emphasis on communities around certain trends in content.

Brand pages are even more weighted to photography than before – perhaps in response to the new formatting of Facebook Timeline, which allows brands to pin photos and other content across their pages.

170 million users is double the number that was announced in January, and places Google+ third globally among US-based social networks, but there is some scepticism over the veracity of the figures.

In a recent letter, Larry Page, CEO and co-founder of the search giant, claimed that Google+ had 100 million ‘active’ users. But a post on the influential tech blog Mashable pointed out that the recent numbers from independent monitors ComScore and ExperianHitwise tell a different story: ComScore has 23.1 million active US users in March 2012, and ExperianHitwise recorded 61 million US visits in the same month.