What the world’s number one website tells us about our future
- Sat, January 01 2011
- Filed under: Social networking and web 2.0
Facebook surpassed Google as the world’s most popular website in 2010. According to Experian Hitwise as cited in the Washington Post, Facebook jumped to the top spot after spending last year in third place and the year before in ninth. Nearly 9% of unique online visits were to Facebook this year, compared to Google’s 7.2 percent. And in the same article, ComScore was cited as saying Facebook surpassed Google for the first time in number of pages viewed (which makes sense given the fact you stay within Facebook when you visit while you use Google to get elsewhere online).
What does this mean to you?
This news shows we are increasingly receiving content not only via algorithms but via our own friends and family members. The web is increasingly people-centered. This means you should spend some time thinking long and hard about your own community. Are you listening to all those influential conversations that exist beyond your official web presence and press releases? Are you participating in them? Are you stuck in an old-school broadcast mentality or are you enabling your supporters to share and create content about you wherever they are online? Your best messenger is not yourself, and your best content may not be your own. How can you move from a model of preaching to participation? That’s where things already are - so it’s where we need to head fast.
Feeling confused about Facebook? Check out this free training for help.
Personal note: Inspired by a Tweet from Kivi Leroux Miller and the words of Seth Godin on the merits of blogging, I’m going to try to blog daily in 2011. You can see if I succeed or fail right here. The reason it’s worth trying? Blogging forces you into a state of mental depth and rigor, and we can all do with more of that. It’s one thing to have a thought. It’s quite another to think it through and post it publicly. You have to work your brain harder. Plus you get the bonus of smart people reacting to your thoughts. I agree with this video that for these reasons, blogging has been one of the best personal and professional growth experiences of my career. Thanks for reading this blog and sharing your smart ideas!
Comments
Thank you for talking about how Facebook has surpassed google in terms of popularity. Personally, I had NO idea until I read your blog post!
It does make sense that you can waste time on facebook much longer than you can waste time on Google. But I still stand by what I said, that Facebook is not an effective place to market your business or get donations for your nonprofit. I don’t know anyone aside from Beth Kanter who has raised any significant amount of money with Twitter OR facebook, and I consider myself fairly well informed. Just because a lot of traffic is there doesn’t mean it’s the RIGHT traffic for your nonprofit to get exposure and donations with.
Mazarine
http://wildwomanfundraising.com
Facebook surpassing Google means the death of social skills for millions. Dramatic? Possibly, but my point is that the internet is becoming more personal while the real world becomes less-so. Not so long ago I would have had to get on a train to catch up with my friends in another city, now it’s a quick chat online.. where will it end?