Is Google+ really dead?

Farhad Manjoo says that in spite of its promise, Google's stab in the social networking arena has failed to hit the mark:

I’ve been surprised by just how dreary the site has become. Although Google seems determined to keep adding new features, I suspect there’s little it can do to prevent Google+ from becoming a ghost town. Google might not know it yet, but from the outside, it’s clear that G+ has started to die—it will hang on for a year, maybe two, but at some point Google will have to put it out of its misery.

Since signing up myself at launch, I've seen no reason to return to the site. A 'ghost town' seems to describe things as they are at the moment, let alone what it might look like in a year or two. The primary issue seems to be this: when you're dealing with network effects, there's no way a site with only marginal improvements will overtake a giant. Besides, the 'next Facebook', assuming Facebook doesn't make any huge mistakes, probably won't look anything like Facebook. Yeah, it's dying – if not dead already.