Back in March, murdok looked at how Facebook was driving more traffic to some websites than even Google was. While, that was certainly not the case for everybody, it was still fascinating to see.
We also looked at how the lines between Facebook and Google were getting closer together in terms of unique visitors. Well, it’s July now, and they have gotten even closer. The latest data from Compete shows the numbers up until June 20. Compete has Google.com at 145,948,025 and Facebook.com at 122,559,672 on that date.
Luckily for Google, the lines getting closer together is not so much a product of people going to Google.com less. They’re just going to Facebook.com more. It looks like Google use has remained relatively flat, as Facebook use just continues to grow tremendously.
For most sites, a lack of significant growth wouldn’t be looked upon as incredibly favorable, but how much further can Google really go up in terms of search market share. Google is already so far ahead of the game, the company should be happy that it’s not losing an incredible amount. Bing has edged up a bit since its launch, but it has a long way to go before it crowds Google.
The competition is there, and Google knows it, but even overlap between Google and Bing use has remained relatively steady since the initial Bing hype wore down.
But back to Google and Facebook. Google.com and Facebook.com serve very different purposes. People go to Google to find information. They go to Facebook to hang out. The threat to Google here is really more about what people are spending their online time doing. As it stands right now, it appears that people are just spending more time online in general (especially kids). This leaves plenty of room for Google searches and Facebook socializing.
Of course there are plenty of variables to consider as well. These are just two homepages. This doesn’t include search boxes in web browsers, things like Facebook Connect, or any other products from either company.
