March 24, 2010
Google vs. Facebook
If Facebook and Google were in a website popularity contest, who do you think would win?
Well, according to a recent article in Newsweek, Facebook (for the first time ever), has had more online trafficking than Google. Is that even possible? With social media all the rage, you cannot really be surprised by the numbers. Everyone is on Facebook. You, your friends, your mom, your friend’s mom, and even your dog have their own profiles nowadays.
We go on the Internet for basically one main reason: to find information. We go on our bank sites to check our balances, clothing sites to find a new cute shirt to buy, and ticketing sites to find out when our favorite band is playing in town. But with social media well underway, we have found a whole new aspect and reasoning to go online: to find out what is going in people’s lives. It is safe to say that people are nosy. Everyone wants to find out what is going on with one another and gain insight into their lives. But hey, we cant help it (we’re human)! Facebook is the people version of Google, which is probably why more people are checking their profile recently than submitting search inquiries to Google.
People are interested in real life. So what better way to find out than from the people we know? It’s not that informational sites aren’t as interesting, they just tend to lack the personable and “real” factor which these social media sites typically personify. We can compare this to television. Years ago, most of the shows that were broadcasted were sitcoms involving actors and scripts. If you tune into basically any channel today (such as VH1 or TLC), what do you see? Our TVs are flooded with reality shows with real people in real situations (or as close to real as you can get). So if society is pushing for more realistic entertainment, it makes sense why Internet users are pushing more toward sites as Facebook and Twitter. Interest is consistent no matter what media it is portrayed through.
