Google's new Google+ social network is only available to an exclusively small group of users

Google's new Google+ social network is currently only available to an exclusively small group of users but the new social network is already hitting the headlines.

On Wednesday, it seemed that China had blocked the social network as people were unable to upload the page.

However, according to the Shanghaist bloggers, Google+ is not blocked and it just takes a while to access it.

"Before everybody picks this one up and runs with it, let's all take a breath! We just tried accessing plus.google.com and, while it took forever to load (similar to some other Google products we know) it did eventually open.

The irregularity of speed probably has something to do with the fact that Google+ automatically routes you through an HTTPS secure connection, which has been known to cause problems. The GFW does all kinds of aggravating things we don't quite understand.

All this isn't to say they wont block it eventually, which they probably will. If it manages to gather any kind of a following in the first place, that is."

While only time will tell if China decides to block the Google social network, James Lewis from the Centren for Strategic and International Studies, told the Daily News he would not be surprised if the Asian giant eventually blocked Google+.

"There's a little bit of a grudge match between Google and China," Lewis noted, referring to Google's decision last year to essentially pull its search engine out of mainland China rather than cooperate with Chinese censors, and allegations this year that Google's Gmail email service had been infiltrated by China-based Hackers.

"Google is not very popular with the Chinese [government]," said Lewis.

Chinese authorities "are really afraid of social networks," Lewis added. "They're particularly afraid of American social networks. They think the U.S. government uses them to destabilize China."