The Financial Times is reporting today in a story found on CNBC that Facebook has overtaken Google as the most popular place to visit on the Web.
Social networking website Facebook has capped a year of phenomenal growth by overtaking Google’s popularity among US internet users, with industry data showing it has scored more visits on its home page than the search engine.
In a sign that the web is becoming more sociable than searchable, research firm Hitwise said.
What does that mean? Nothing. You’ll still be shucking and jiving to get your dinky website indexed and ranked on Google. But it should make you wonder what it might take to get some of that money pie that Facebook is pulling from Google. Hence the reason Google developed Buzzzzzzzzzz.
Oh, calm down. Yes Google and ALL its properties still account for about 15% of user destinations. Hell, Yahoo still accounts for 11%. But there is Facebook pulling in 7%, a trajectory that the smart and boring people say will have it soaring above Google in no time.
The report says that U.S. Internet users spend over 6 hours a month on social networking sites. Obviously the average is skewed because anyone with a teenage spawn knows that is a daily rate. But that number increases every month.
Being a niche crap provider I’ve never thought so much of my material that I ever believed anyone would take more than a passing glance at information I pasted to the web walls. My belief, even today, is that most of my clicks, at least to Adsense, is collected from the utterly bored. People that are bored or stoned or drunk and are simply clicking around to relieve themselves of doing anything useful at home or work. Unfortunately instead of clicking around results from a search engine now they are zipping around Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and StumbleUpon. Concerning? Not so much since there are tons of searches still working their way across my sites. But something I think about nonetheless.
Why do I bring this up? Because I like to see Google suffer for one. Anything to knock them down, even if I am gnawing on the hand that feeds, is a delight. For another? It would be cool to figure out how to monetize and market to that heretofore useless traffic known as Web 2.0. It is simply going to grow bigger and it will be a shame not to pull some coin from it.
How to do it? Dunno. Maybe some of the smart people like Griz, Court, Ben, Mark or Leo will have it figured out directly. More likely is that they will continue to ignore it and snicker as people waste their time trying to corral and herd non targeted traffic into a penny Adsense click.
No, I’m not calling for the collapse of Google. No, I do not think you will lose your earnings from niche sites. Yes, keep doing keyword research, article writing and all the other crap we do to make money for Google. I mean, make money from Google.
I simply think it’s worthwhile, more like interesting, to keep a lazy eye on the movements within the interwebs. Trends come and go. Or fade. Or change. Microsoft was dominant. Now it’s not. Google was dominant. Now there are threats all over like Bing. Facebook. Twitter. Lost Ball.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Another interesting fact:
“Year over year, Facebook visitors have skyrocketed 185%, while Google traffic has increased just 9%.”
One of the ways to monetize Facebook is to start your own fan page, group, or cause that either attracts attention or appeals to “rabid fans”.
I have no idea if the group below is for real, but this is one way to get attention and have people join…
Save Puppies from Being
Exploited as Shark Bait!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=72753679678
Then, after you develop said fanpage/group, you e-mail them to join and then provide relevant CPA offers, ebooks, Clickbank stuff,
whatever, on your page, or through e-mail..
Facebook leading the web in time spent
By Rich Cherecwich
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/24351.asp
I maybe stating the obvious here, but Facebook provides a lot of advertising stats on their members so finding a niche is easy if you want to target market.
While it may be a waste of time to join or spend time on these Social Media sites yourself, their marketing potential should definitely not be ignored. I still don’t understand how to market products using Twitter. Maybe just not bright enough.
And honestly, I also don’t understand why it is so popular, or why people even use it. You are limited to what, 140 characters so there is not much to say worth that would be worth it in the first place..
Isn’t that why god made blogs, websites, cell phones, instant messaging, texting, etc? Just don’t get it..
But I digress…
I have been taking a new look at MySpace, Facebook, searching for cheaper advertising and a lazer targeted group for some products under my consideration.
I just have no skill when it comes to using Adwords and figure that this might be a good way to get my feet wet with some cheap clicks and a lazer focused niche.
I don’t know all the rules for Myspace, but
there is some downside to Facebook marketing.
They can be a bit touchy when it comes to
the way you structure your advertising, how many groups/fanpages you create, e-mailing other members, etc. Yup, a little like Google!
You just have to follow the guidelines as best you can. I am glad that the “Google Gods” are starting to become a little more “human” as time goes on.
I never liked the fact that they were becoming
the biggest “search engine religion” around. Even though I never had a real beef with Google and do like some of their products, I just don’t like monopolies.
I didn’t get into this business to please a search engine. Let’s hope, as you mentioned, that Social Media sites, or anybody that competes against the Goog doesn’t go the way of the Pets.com
Robert C…
This isn’t really a new concept. Us black hatters have been pillaging the social networking sites and making bank from it for years now…
Non-hatters actually know it’s not a new concept. It’s just a different game that I personally haven’t had an interest in playing, blackhat or not. But if eyeballs start moving away from search engines and onto social properties it will be worth considering.
This is an interesting post since I just started a campaign on FB yesterday.
I like the fact that FB lets you market to “niches”. You can market to 18-20 year olds who like to play volleyball and live in Wisconsin if you wanted to.
I think the downside to social network marketing is the CTR (not to mention ppl aren’t usually looking to purchase something – like searchers are). My stats right now for the campaign are something like 44,000 impressions and 3 clicks – LMAO! .007% CTR
hilarious – i’ll see how it works out tho