Facebook is a beast that really fascinates me in how it continues to eat up everything in sight. With Myspace being one of the original social networking sites, how is it that facebook managed to take over the community to the extent it has? Myspace still ranks within the top 5 visited sites within the U.S (facebook taking the 2nd place title), yet it's net page views on a global scale accounts for less then .75% of global web traffic while facebook triumphs at slightly over 4.25%; nearly 5 times the traffic.
One aspect that facebook has taken great care to is the speed at which the internet thrives on. Facebook has always seemed to focus greatly on "the now", making sure the latest updates are immediately identifiable. Not only are the most recent activities obvious, but the speed at which they are transferred trump Myspace as well. The average load time of a myspace page is 3.716 seconds, while the average facebook zooms by at an incredible 0.118 seconds. Not only are you fed information easier, it's done at an alarming rate. In addition to this, facebook has also made a mobile-friendly browser format along with an App for the iPhone (and other phones i assume), making the use of facebook on the fly that much more appealing (Myspace has also created these features, but it's speed is probably lackluster ).
My experience with facebook has always been limited. I created one about 3-4 years ago and I've posted on my own wall probably no more then 5 times. There are maybe 4 pictures with my face on it and almost no signs of activity. The most entertainment i get out of facebook is reading the ridiculous things people seem to find necessary for the world to know, seeing pictures that should probably not be in a public domain. I think it's an amazingly successful website (i guess that's not really an opinion) but people have lost sight of the nature of the internet. A quick example of this occurred when a friend posted they were moving, then when I later spoke with them and mentioned to move they responded with "Oh, how did you know about that?". Well, you posted it for the world to see from your cellphone about a day ago.
I don't see social networking sites failing anytime soon, especially with facebook's global traffic increasing over 50% in the past 3 months. How you perceive them and whether you use it or not become irrelevant when you realize 25% of internet users, and growing, visit facebook an average of 14 times a day.
*All statistics in this post were obtained from Alexa - The Web Information Company.
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