Traffic wars: Facebook is gaining fast on Google

Google is now the first place almost all of us go to search the Internet, an enviable position. But its not always been that way.

Its only the last decade which has seen Google come to the forefront. Back in 1996 we received most of our traffic from search engines like Lycos, Hotbot and Altavista (real traffic which generated business) - I am sure a lot will not even recognize these names but at the time they were the "Googles" of their time.  By the end of the 90s we were receiving hundreds of relevant visitors sent from Yahoo, this lasted a few years. Then Google became the search engine to use and the traffic which was previously flowing from Yahoo almost stopped, and the majority was starting to come from Google. 

Today Google is our main referrer of relevant visitors, however, those referrals are decreasing and this maybe due the shift of users from Google to social network sites (this shift in the use of the Internet is detailed here: secinfo.com). 

Many in the media have been telling businesses they can not afford to ignore the benefits of social media (computing highlighted the fact here: computing.co.uk). If you look at the first graph on the right you can see that Facebook have already gained on Google (while Yahoo continues its gradual decline), and Twitter appears to be insignificant, dragging along at the bottom, until you check the second graph against Ebay.

So its time to jump aboard this media wave and join in. So Twitter this if you like it, if not then go join Yahoo! !!!!

Long gone are the days where Lycos, Hotbot and Altavista ruled the search market; the shift was FAST.

Could Google lose its position? We think so.

We will continue to see winners and losers as the Internet continues to evolve, and it a long way away from maturity.

(graph from: Alexa.com)

(graph from: Alexa.com)