MySpace is still beating Facebook in the UK – News Corp.’s site receives 41 percent more visits. But Facebook has just overtaken the older social network in terms of Internet searches, and this has big implications for the future.
As is often the case when we’re dealing with this type of information, thanks are due to Hitwise’s Heather Hopkins for digging up the data. It seems that Facebook currently holds a 0.40 percent share of UK internet searches, while MySpace has just 0.34 percent. Another contender, Bebo, is practically in a category of its own with a 1.19 percent market share.
Analysis of the situation as a whole led Hopkins to write, “Facebook still has a way to go before it catches MySpace or Bebo. Last week, Bebo ranked #6 among All Categories of websites, MySpace ranked #8 and Facebook ranked #11.” But she also made clear that things are looking pretty good for Facebook.
“The most important reason why this metric matters is that search volume can be a predictive indicator,” Hopkins stated in reference to UK internet searches, and went on to recount how Bebo overtook MySpace; the manner in which this occurred strongly resembles what is now transpiring between Facebook and MySpace.
And all of this is going on even as we wonder whether Facebook will still be Facebook when it defeats MySpace. Goobook? Microbook? Robert Scoble recently considered the matter, and voted in favor of an IPO.
