The Internet is a buzz with the news that Facebook has surpassed Google in the number of visits per week. The social sphere is hailing the news as another reason social trumps “traditional”, in all respects, including “traditional” digital.
Well, yes and no. It really comes down to understanding the psychographics of how people use the various platforms.
Google is an intent-based system, not really a discovery-based system. Google isn’t there to maximize your page views; they want you in and out of their platform with the most relevant results. They aren’t doing their job if you spend 30mins browsing to find something useful.
Facebook on the other hand is about keeping your attention. The only way they do this is by connecting you with the collective consciousness of your friends. It’s all about discovery. Discovering the best product, the best band, the best dog park. All curated by the people (and brands) you choose to connect with.
This works at the top of the purchase funnel when I’m trying to decide what kind of spring dress to buy, or I want to be inspired. When I actually want to buy something however I’m much more likely to head over to Google and try and find an online retailer.
Nothing is black & white and it’s good to remember that each Internet property serves a purpose depending on our needs at that moment in time.
Facebook has more page views? Great, that means they’ve done their job. Google is dying? Hardly.
Image inspiration courtesy of: Wikipedia
written by Tamera Kremer
Google is only about getting you in and out to a certain point. They make money by selling advertising with their search results. If you don’t click those ads, no body makes money. That’s one of the reasons why everything Google does is web-based (notice all Google iPhone apps launch back to the browser?), and why Google’s OS is web-based. Not saying if it’s good or bad, just a business model.
Thanks for the traffic update!
Participating in to the discussion of the following post I wish to mention that yes! it is very true these social networking site plays a very important role in getting very remarkable online business in the current times.Good quality of information also help in attaining heavy traffic ultimately increasing the page rank of the client site.
e-Commerce
“Facebook surpassed Google in number of visiting per week” can only prove that any product which serve our needs the best can grab the attention. Google had got the most traffic for a long time. Before Facebook, there were lots of social website which really sucks. If the product itself does a really good job, No matter it’s a intent-based system or discovery-based system, it will work.