Why is Google Afraid of Facebook? Part II: Facebook's Traffic Passes Yahoo

Why is Google Afraid of Facebook? Part II: Facebook's Traffic Passes Yahoo

Social network Facebook has passed Yahoo! and is now nearing Google in the #1 spot for most monthly unique visitors from the US, according to traffic analyst firm Compete. Compete just published its January numbers this morning and reported that nearly 134 million US web users visited Facebook last month. Google saw nearly 148 million.

Google's US traffic grew by just over 1 million visitors between December and January. Facebook's traffic grew by almost 1.5 million. Yahoo's traffic fell by almost 1.5 million users. As Compete's Aaron Prebluda writes, Google passed Yahoo 2 years ago this month "and never looked back." This isn't just jockeying between companies, though. We may be witnessing the eclipse of search by social networking.

Three weeks ago we wrote about other numbers that pointed to the rise of social networking vs search (Why is Google Afraid of Facebook? Because Social Networking Could Soon Pass Search) but those numbers were a little less clear.

As we wrote then:

What would it mean if social networking over-took search in terms of sheer visits online? It would mark a sea-change on the internet. No longer would our dominant use of the web be seeking out web-pages built by HTML web-masters! Now we would all be publishing tiny little updates that perhaps only our friends and family care about. We'd be subscribing, more than we ever did by RSS, to syndicated updates from organizations of interest, large and small. It would be (perhaps will be) a very different era and, to be frank, it's going to be harder to monetize. There will be privacy battles. There will be new platforms for innovation.

It's a pretty big deal. Things will really change if current trends continue and social networking rises to the top... And that's a big reason why Google and Facebook are rivals.

Source: readwriteweb.com

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Flickr co-founder Presses Beta Button

Flickr co-founder Presses Beta Button

Once you're lucky, twice you're good? So went the title of a recent book about Web 2.0 entrepreneurs. Pretty soon, we may have an idea whether it applies to Caterina Fake.

Fake, the co-founder of Flickr, announced on her blog Friday afternoon that her new start-up, Hunch, is sending out invitations to try the service, now in beta test.

What is it? I'll hand the reins over to Fake and let her explain:

Look. Decision-making is difficult, and decisions have to be made constantly. What should I be for Halloween? Do I need a Porsche? Does my hipster facial hair make me look stupid? Is Phoenix a good place to retire? Whom should I vote for? What toe ring should I buy?

It's dark and lonely work. Coin-flipping, I Ching consultation, closing your eyes and jumping, postponing the inevitable, Rock-Paper-Scissors, and asking your sister are all time-honored means of coming to a decision--and yet we think there's room for one more: Hunch.

Hunch is a decision-making site, customized for you. Which means Hunch gets to know you, then asks you 10 questions about a topic (usually fewer!), and provides a result--a hunch, if you will. It gives you results it wouldn't give other people.

Will it fly? Who knows, but in the midst of this miserable economic depression, there probably are lots of people out there who feel as if they don't have a clue anymore.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10206217-2.html

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Social Media Marketing With Twitter – An Introduction

Social Media Marketing With Twitter – An Introduction

As a business owner, you have likely heard of social media marketing. You may even have been curious enough to investigate it. And you may have been overwhelmed by the many options available to you. Between Digg, Delicious, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and all of the many others, it is difficult to know where to start.

Twitter is one of the newer entries in the social media marketing field. Launched in 2006, it has become an enormously popular way for people to connect and keep in touch. Like any form of social media, it has also attracted businesses keen to get on the bandwagon of social media marketing.

Using Twitter as a Marketing

Twitter is often referred to as a micro-blog. Instead of posts, you write “tweets” of 140 characters or less. You can follow other users with similar interests, and they can follow you. Each time you add an update, all of your followers receive a message. They can choose to respond or not.

As with any social media marketing site, using Twitter requires you to be involved. You need to follow and be followed. You also need to provide information of value to the people who follow you. One example is links to your blog or other relevant information on your site.

Using Twitter for marketing does take time (as does any attempt at social media marketing). You need to build a community of followers and engage with other users to create credibility. To make links, you have to have something interesting to share with people, which means you need to spend time creating enough current, relevant, interesting and (occasionally) thought-provoking content for your followers to read.

Tips for Using Twitter as Part of Your Online Marketing

There are some basic rules to follow when using Twitter for marketing. In fact, many of these rules apply to other social media sites too, like Facebook.

Do not spam or engage in hard selling. Remember to be sociable and offer information of value. Blog posts on the benefits of your product or services, interesting conferences or professional development opportunities that are coming up – these are good examples.

• Always link back to your site or blog. That is why you are doing this in the first place.
• To get followers, put a link on your site or blog inviting people to follow you on Twitter. Twitter provides the code for a “badge” that you can drop into your Website or blog.
• Search Twitter for likeminded users/businesses and see who they are following. You may be interested in following the same users.
• Follow the lead of those who came before you. There are users with hundreds of followers. Check out what they are tweeting about so you can get ideas.

Use Twitter as Part of a Detailed Social Media Marketing Strategy

Of course, if you are using social media for marketing, you need to have a comprehensive plan. To create a plan like that, you may need help from a search engine marketing consultant. In addition to tweeting on Twitter (which can eat up a lot of your time) you need to have a schedule for blogging and writing articles to link to.

As part of this strategy, develop a plan for your content. Don’t throw any old thing up there just to have something to link to. A consultant can show you how to create compelling copy that makes your blog, articles and Website work with your social media marketing, so that you are drawing traffic through as many channels as possible.

Source From: homebasedblogging.com

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7 Creative and Interesting Infographics about Twitter

7 Creative and Interesting Infographics about Twitter

By Xavier Lur

With over 54 million users worldwide and close to 7 billion tweets being posted, Twitter is the world’s most popular micro-blogging platform, fueled by smartphones and online bursts of 140 characters. 2009 is the year of Twitter. It soared to lofty heights over the past year, all thanks to the active presence of celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher and Oprah Winfrey. The San Francisco-based Internet company isn’t a social networking website like Facebook or MySpace. Instead, the main focus of Twitter is about real-time information of the things you care about — work, industry, company, news.

2010 will be the revenue year of Twitter. The micro-blogging juggernaut will focus on generating revenue in the year ahead, and may explore options including an initial public offering. “2010 is really going to be the revenue year. I don’t know if we’re going to be profitable, but we have plenty of time,” said co-founder and creative director Biz Stone during an Oxford University event in November.

Today, I’d like to share with you guys ‘7 Creative and Interesting Infographics about Twitter‘. Enjoy and don’t forget to tweet about this post!

1. The Journey of a Tweet

Timon Singh from NGONews has created an infographic which shows the journey of a Tweet and how it evolves from a simple 140-character long message to a Google news story.

2. The Many Users of Twitter

Ordinary people use Twitter to share with their friends and co-workers what they are doing; bloggers, Internet marketers, and businesses use Twitter to promote their articles/products; politicians use Twitter to garner support; celebrities use Twitter to stay in touch with their beloved fans, and spammers use Twitter to send unsolicited messages.

Inspired by Guy Kawasaki, “The Many Users of Twitter” is an infographic designed by the folks at NGONews. According to Guy Kawasaki, there are six types of Twitter users – Newbie, Brand, Smore, Bitch, Maven, and Mensch. So which one are you?

3. Information creation and circulation before and after Twitter

Designed by Burson Marsteller, the “before Twitter” infographic shows that time is necessary for the information to spread before its arrival on Twitter. On the other hand, the “after Twitter” infographic reveals the changes of the information circulation with the development of the use of Twitter.

Before Twitter

After Twitter

4. Facebook VS Twitter

Although one is a social networking websites whereas the other is a micro-blogging platform, but both have been ruled as “arch-rivals”. The “Facebook VS Twitter” infographic depicts the exponential growth of the two websites.

*The statistics are outdated, but at least it’s worth taking a look.

5. More Truth About Twitter – Twitter Stats

Based on surveys and statistics, InformationIsBeautiful has designed an infographic that shows the percentage of active and non-active Twitter users; the number of people out of 100 whose tweets are pointless babble, and when are the peak days and hours.

6. The History of Twitter, So Far

In July, we gathered information from various sources and compiled the list of “The History of Twitter in pictures“.

However, Manolith has done a better job in telling the story of Twitter by squeezing a long-form blog post into an attractive infographic that puts some key moments of the service’s history in visual form.

7. Le Twitter Hack

Apparently, Twitter needs better security. The “Le Twitter Hack” infographic shows a timeline of events regarding the July’s Twitter attack.

Credit: techxav.com

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Facebook affecting Indian firms' productivity: Study

Facebook affecting Indian firms' productivity: Study

London, December 22 (ANI): Facebook is becoming a problem for employers at offices in India, as employees have started spending so much time on the social networking site that it is beginning to affect productivity, a new survey has revealed.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) have found in their survey that office staff on average spend an hour a day on sites like Facebook, resulting in a loss of productivity measuring 12.5percent.

The study noted: "Close to 12.5 percent of productivity of human resource in corporate sector is misappropriated each day since a vast majority of them while away their time accessing social networking sites during the office hours."

Seemingly, the workers use Orkut, Facebook, Myspace and Linkedin for "romancing".

"As a matter of fact, [the] growing use of browsing sites can be dangerous for overall productivity and IT companies have already installed software to restrict its use," the BBC News quoted Assocham secretary general DS Rawat as saying.

As part of the study, a total of 4,000 employees between the ages of 21 and 60 from different cities in India including Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Mumbai (Bombay), Pune, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Kanpur, were questioned.

It was observed that nearly half of office employees accessed Facebook during work time.

Moreover, four in every 10 workers built their entire Orkut or Facebook profile at office.

Also, 83 percent of the employees think there is no harm surfing at work during office hours. (ANI)
ANI

Source: Yahoo NEWS

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Facebook's Favorite Gadgets

Facebook's Favorite Gadgets

Oliver J. Chiang, Forbes.com

Know a friend or a loved one who is obsessed with her Facebook page? Of course you do. So why not get her a gift this holiday season that works with the social network?

At a recent Silicon Valley event focused on gadgets, Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and vice president of engineering Mike Schroepfer rattled off a list of gadgets that can enhance the Facebook experience. From cameras to cuff links, a surprisingly wide range of trinkets have become integrated with the social network, making them must-have gifts for those who spend far too many hours updating their status or playing FarmVille.

In Pictures: Facebook's Favorite Gadgets

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One of Sandberg and Schroepfer's top picks was the Canon PowerShot S90 ($400). Hailed by reviewers as the photography enthusiast's compact camera, the PowerShot S90 can also be set up to automatically upload photos to an online album on your Facebook account.

In Pictures: Facebook's Favorite Gadgets

In mobile, a recent trend is phones that provide easy Web access to social networks. So it's no surprise that Sandberg and Schroepfer highlighted the Palm Pixi, which like the Palm Pre, runs the webOS operating system that makes it easy for users to import contacts from online accounts like Facebook, Google and LinkedIn right onto the phone. In addition, the Pixi comes preloaded with a Facebook application that lets you view your friends' status updates and post your own.

Schroepfer also gave high marks to the Logitech Squeezebox Radio ($200), a wi-fi-enabled music box that can play tracks from Internet radio stations or from streaming music services like Pandora or Last.fm. The Squeezebox also lets you send a message to your friends on Facebook recommending songs you heard and liked on the device.

Schroepfer also touted a companion piece to go along with the radio, the iPeng app for the iPhone ($10), which turns your Apple smart phone into a remote control for the Squeezebox.

But who says that the social networking addiction has to end at gadgets? Facebook meets fashion with the F Me Cufflinks ($50) from CuffLinks.com, designed with the same white-on-blue aesthetic of the Web site.

Facebook-related gadgets weren't the only holiday gift picks from the Facebook executives. Sandberg also is a fan of the Clarisonic Skin Care Brush ($195), a device that cleanses and moisturizes facial skin.

Meanwhile, the strangest gift of the event was the Woozee, an animatronic doll resembling a blue bear with horns, from Social Gaming Network spinoff ToyBot. Woozee is also souped up with 3G, wi-fi and GPS connectivity. This allows for cool features: Woozee can recite text messages sent to it remotely through mobile or Internet-connected devices. Though the doll won't be on the market till mid-2010, the techie tykes in your family may want to get a head a start by putting this on their future wish lists.

Follow Oliver J. Chiang on Twitter or e-mail him at ochiang@forbes.com.

See Also:

Grab-'Em-While-You-Can Gadgets

Oliver J. Chiang, Forbes.com

Source: Yahoo NEWS

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