Will Facebook rule the Web during the next decade?
If the 2000s was the Google decade, then the 2010s will be the Facebook decade. This era will unleash an avalanche of change for media companies and advertisers. You can see the writing on the wall, no pun intended.
Nielson reported that in January, U.S. consumers spent a staggering seven hours a month on Facebook-more than three and a half times the time spent of Yahoo, which ranked second in attention.
Social networking is still largely thought of as a new genre of sites that help us forge stronger relationships with the people we care about.
In the months and years ahead, Facebook will continue to beef up core features such as e-mail and search. Some of this it will do on its own.
So, yes, Facebook is slowly devouring the web. And while the social network has plenty of critics and it runs into the occasional privacy concerns, it will dominate. In fact, I see it becoming the No.1 website in the world in less than three years.
What does this mean? Websites will become less important over time. They will be primarily transactional and /or utilitarian. Brands will shift more of their dollars and resources to creating a robust presence where people already are and figure out how to use them to build relationships. (Via Advertising Age March 2010)
Do you agree?
Jeff & i have both been preaching/teaching blog blog blog for a few years now;
but I have to admit that currently, Facebook seems to be the most vibrant, immediate, and exciting portion of our online presence.
-Carrie Viohl
I agree, although I'm not sure it'll be EXACTLY like is stated above. I do think that things will move more and more onto Facebook. There are constantly more applications, more pages, etc etc. But the tough part is the "Hide" feature. What do you do if someone chooses to hide you?
I think that blogs will continue to remain popular, as people may like to view content in a larger format.... but I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook comes up with some sort of "blog reader" or... "notes reader". I know some folks who are moving towards only writing facebook notes over blogging.
I guess it's really up in the air and I gave no REAL insight.. but I think the most important factor is to keep constantly up to date with what facebook (and twitter..) is doing so that you're at the forefront.
I would be hard pressed to agree now that twitter is making such a big splash. I am rarely on facebook anymore, but I also don't own a business that requires me to use it. Most of the people I know use twitter almost exclusively with facebook being the slow clunky cousin that we have to go to when people wish us happy birthday or respond to one of our tweets.
I jump on facebook every now and then only to check messages, notifications, etc. I don't really go out of my way to make wall posts or even reply to wall posts. I'm not addicted to reading everyone's status updates but I know a lot of people who are.
For me, facebook is almost like a 2nd email account. Another way for me to receive messages. That's all I use it for. I never play games and I despise getting App invites.
I'm not sure I agree with facebook ever really taking over. Myspace was heading the same way, and it wasn't the first, human nature wont let one site really take over the internet. Google is coming out with Google Wave, which I believe will lead to a full tree structure community if it really takes off, which would make a good direction for the next big thing. If it goes in that direction, it will make the internet as a whole into almost one large categorized community of dynamically interconnected websites, not just users.
I hear what you're saying about using Twitter more than Facebook itself, but how are your clients & potential clients using Twitter/Facebook to find & interact with you?
Facebook seems more lined up for Social Marketing, whereas Twitter seems more inline with true Social Networking and Media.