Internet experts and analysts call this generation the ‘Social Networking Generation’ and yes, people have lived up to the name calling for the third year in a row now. Facebook undoubtedly is the leader in the Social Networking scenario. Mark Zuckerberg’s brain child surely makes the competitors like Google Plus, Orkut, LinkedIn, MySpace etc. eat dust as it strolls ahead of the pack. This fact has been re-established with the fact that according to Experian Hitwise, Facebook occupies 4 spots in the top 10 list of search queries in 2011. And this is not the first time they have earned this feat, what is impressive here is that this is the third year in a row that they have done this.
Heading the list at rank number 1 is Facebook. The other 3 entries in this list are ‘Facebook.com’, ‘Facebook login’ and ‘www.facebook.com’. What is to be noted in this case is that all the queries are about links to the website which clearly goes a long way into showing how it has been becoming popular all across the world. Hitwise, after analysing its data has reported that terms related to Facebook (like Facebook.com or Facebook login) account for almost a whopping 3.48% in the top 50 list of search queries. The significant change in this whole thing is the exclusion of MySpace from the top 10 list. This surely shows the way Facebook has been putting its competitors out of business. On further analysis Hitwise found that almost 5% of the terms searched in 2011 in the top 50 list include some or the other social networking website. They have also reported an increase in the number of navigational search over topic search as people have been increasingly using their browser’s address bar for searching rather than directly putting the website’s address.
The only downside to this whole thing is that this is contrary to the results published by the major search providers like Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Though fans would argue that the lists published by these search engines normally project the increase when they calculate the top 10 rather than the actual number of hits. These search engines are more interested in finding the trend rather than giving us an exact figure.
Whatever is the explanation, and whatever be the sceptic’s view, there is no denying the dominance of Facebook when it comes to the field of social networking and this data just takes another step in proving that idea. Whether 2012 remains that same way, or will there be an upsurge with introduction of new players like Google Plus remains to be seen and analysed. Whatever might be the end result and the conclusion, it surely will be a fascinating watch to see these 2 top players fighting it out for the top spot, and as always, we the users always stand to win from these clashes of the giants.
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