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16 March 2010
Posted in
Social Media
Is Facebook slowly consuming the internet? Well some of us seem to think it is, especially businesses and marketers. Many have expressed their views, and it's very mixed, some think that Facebook will take over, some think it will go the way of Geocities. Let’s have a more in-depth look at the subject…
As stated by figures released by Compete.com, Facebook is now the top source of traffic to major sites such as Yahoo and MSN, yes that’s right, they beat Google on that one. Hitwise’s stats say that Facebook is the fourth leading source of traffic to news sites, so Facebook’s doing well when news is concerned. This means the amount of people that use Facebook and the amount those users use Facebook is on the increase, and fast, they weren’t quite ahead of Google at the start of this year.
Over at Nielsen, they have worked out the average user has been on Facebook for at least seven hours in the month of January, roughly 3 and a half times as much as the second site on the list, Yahoo!. If they are the top two and have such a huge difference, this just shows Facebook as way ahead, again. Also, the amount of searches that Facebook got had jumped by 13% in January, but they still have nothing compared to Google as far as web search goes.
Lots of companies are now constantly jumping on the bandwagon, with more and more thinking of new, innovative ways to attract customers and improve services. 1-800-flowers, for example, have been using their Facebook Fan page to let fans browse through different flower arrangements and then buy their choice of flowers without leaving Facebook.
However, Facebook is also working on expanding it's core search feature, and are working on a new kind of email client (which they have code-named Titan). But with things like their social connections, social data, and algorithms that include the social connections and data allow them to be a more powerful engine than Google. The thing is, is that really what people want in their searches? I would imagine that people would want that, as they will be able to see what their friends and social circle use, giving them ‘more trustable’ products.
Social Networking sites have been a payoff for the companies that used them right, there’s no doubt about that. But them taking over the web is a different concept entirely. It may replace the need for company websites other than online stores, but there will always bee a need for content to share from outside sources. Without this the Facebook community will certainly struggle. So Facebook can’t consume the entire web, if they did it wouldn’t be in their interests.
