In his latest research report, as noted by marketing trade publication Mediaweek, the analyst notes that Facebook’s slice of the U.S. web audience rose from 48 to 70 percent over the last two years, compared to Google’s, which inched up 2 percentage points to 81 percent during the same time period. Plus, Google, despite its search prominence, isn’t the traffic heavy weight it once was. “In 2009, Google accounted for 20 percent of Amazon.com’s traffic. Last year, that number dipped to 19.6 percent,” writes Mediaweek writer (and one of Media Geek’s former colleagues), Mike Shields, citing Khan’s research.
Facebook during that same time period generated a 5.9 percentage point increase in traffic to Amazon. And, the social networking site also topped Google as the most visited U.S. site last year. Need further evidence of Facebook’s rise? Its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, was Time’s 2010 Person of the Year. And, Facebook also held the accolade for most-searched term two years in a row, per web tracking firm Experian Hitwise. Google, which was No. 6 in 2009, didn’t make the list last year. And with Goldman Sachs and Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies’ $500 million investment in Facebook, Google—which might’ve ignored such feats in the past—is clearly feeling the social networking titan’s weight.
So what’s Google to do? Khan, as noted in Mediaweek’s latest report, says not all is lost. One area that’ll likely prove promising to Google—and a sector where competition currently isn’t so fierce—is mobile search. To date, Google derives 15 percent of its search traffic from mobile, but just 3 percent of that translates into revenue, the analyst found. And mobile search is expected to continue to grow as the U.S. market for smartphones continues to expand, Khan said.
Readers, what do you think? Does Google have anything to fear? Is Facebook well on its way to possibly overtaking Google?
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