Dec 28, 2009

400% Rise in Social Media Traffic due to Search Engines


Posted by Marshall Sponder on December 26, 2009


It’s Google that’s driving Social Media searches way, way, up – see my last post on 400% Rise in Social Media Searches in 2009 Y2Y – what does it mean?


Note: Just want to point out this “hunch” of mine about Google driving Social Media searches and traffic needs a more “deep dive” analysis to confirm.   My “hunch” is, I’m right – and if you look at the entire history of what’s happened this year with Social Media, Google, Bing and Yahoo! have their hands all over it …. especially the latter part of this year  – that confirms my “hunch”.
Still, as a Web Analyst – I feel a responsibility to confirm my hunch with real data beyond what I’ve shown.  Had I access to Comscore – I might have an easier time of it – the real data I need is not that easy to get a hold of …. I suspect, if I had it …. it would more or less, confirm what I believe, which is  … it’s the deals that Twitter and Facebook have done with Google that are driving up Social Media and will continue to accelerate in 2010.


I think it’s about Google and Real Time Search – the inclusion of updates from Twitter and Facebook are the main drivers – but the overall direction is for a full integration between Search Engines and Social Media next year.





Very interesting recap of developments in Social Media this year from WebProNews which tie into the 400% increase in searches and activity on Social Media in the second half of 2009.
Google’s  inclusion of real time data from Twitter and now Facebook – is beginning to deliver the “promised land” and  made Social Media the “mecca” the “goldmine” that it is … it’s Google, as I predicted long ago – would bring Social Media, via Search, into it’s own – it’s Google and the Search Engines that will make 2010 the year of Social Media ROI and the beginning of the Convergence.
While the buildup has been gradual, according th the Google Insights for Search chart – the real action started happening in July 09 and has been building up momentum ever since.

Google Insights for Search
Gadgets powered by Google


Here’s what happened according to WebProNews – What’s Happened in Social Media Over the Year and I’ll bold the parts I think are the most significant.
July
In July, Google launched its Facebook page, MySpace launched its email service, and LinkedIn introduced custom profiles for companies. YouTube launched its 3D experimentdoubled the size limit of uploads, and gave users the ability to share YouTube Insights stats.
A Twitter documentary was announced, and Twitter itself gave businesses a new resource and started making hashtags link. Facebook addressed privacy and photo use for ads, gave businesses a way to increase their Facebook fans, and added the ability to create events from the publisher.
August
In August, Facebook was readying a new ads manager, made subtle changes to its design, announced plans for privacy improvement, started integrating directly with Twitter, launched its own real-time search, implemented restrictions on sponsored status updates, updated open stream APIsacquired FriendFeed, and began letting developers sell physical merchandise for virtual currency.
Twitter quietly took a step toward security, and announced plans to launch a feature that makes the service location-aware. Izea launched “Sponsored Tweets,” andTweetmeme brought analytics to retweeting.
Google reader got more social features, YouTube placed more emphasis on search and launched its own AdSense-like promoted videosDelicious showed off new features forsharingsearch, and its homepage. StumbleUpon made some big changes to its toolbar.
September
In September, Google turned the whole web into an exclusive social network with SideWiki. Yahoo launched a new contacts API, Yahoo profiles became social media profiles, and the company launched the Twitter-like Yahoo Meme in English. Microsoft added MySpace activity updates to Windows Live, and Bing announced it was readying sharing features for search results.
sick poll was discovered on and removed from Facebook, and Facebook announced its translation plans, and that it had roughly the same amount of people as the entire U.S. population. Facebook also added tagging from status updates, and launched Facebook Lite in the U.S. and India.
MySpace Music launched in Australia, and Myspace users started being able to sync updates with Twitter. LinkedIn made profile organization easier, a record label was launched for YouTube stars, and YouTube began readying a friend-finder feature.
Pizza Hut and other brands used Twitter to help feed the hungry, Digg made changes to its nofollow policy, the Washington Post’s leaked social media policy faced criticism, and real-time search engines Collecta and OneRiot launched APIs.
October
In October, Bing scored deals with Twitter and Facebook, while Google scored one with Twitter. Mozilla shared its plans for integrating social media and email into one inbox, and Twitter partnered with its first charity. LinkedIn announced that it surpassed 50 million users.
MySpace introduced new music features, StumbleUpon launched a new design with more of a search focus, YouTube got real-time search for comments, and the only known video footage of Anne Frank appeared on YouTube.
Facebook confirmed testing of a new design, made share buttons more usefulgave groups walls, tried harder to get page owners to verify, and presented new obstacles for application developers. They also launched the Create Application API.
November
In November, Google eased the retrieval of SideWiki entries for entire sites, Google Wave got a feature for following, and Google launched some new features for Google Friend Connect.
Facebook tested new design changes, and continued work on privacychanges. Facebook and Twitter both made their way into dictionariesand onto video game consoles.  Twitter made geotagging tweets possible, and talked about plans which would make its suggested usres list more like Twellow’s. Twitter also changed launched Twitter Lists, gave apps access to people search, rolled out the controversial retweet feature, and changed “What are you doing?” to“What’s Happening?”.
LinkedIn opened up its platform to developers, Yahoo began showing tweets for news results, MySpace launched new music charts, Salesforce announced its “Facebook for the enterprise,” YouTube connected news outlets with citizen reporters, PayPal launched new APIs to take over mobile and social apps, Microsoft launched a big redesign of MSN, Opera launched Opera UniteDigg launched Digg Trends.

December

In December, Google, Facebook, and YouTube all got new URL shorteners. Twitter continued expansion into new languages, and announced plans for business features. Google launched real-time search in the search results.
LinkedIn began testing a new design, and launched faceted search, Facebook began giving translators awards, adjusted privacy controls, and formed a board for online safety, MySpace launched new APIsupgraded users’ mobile experience, and acquired iMeem, Bing launchednew maps with apps, and Yahoo deepened its integration with Facebook. Digg released a new version of its API. Also, the new FTC guidelines went into effect.
It’s mostly Google – Google has been merging the Social Web with Organic Search and now….



Compete.com Destination Traffic from Google.com, November 09

…. Social Media goes mainstream in 2010 – it’s said to be the year of Social Media ROI, so many say ….. I think if we’re not there by years end 2010, we’ll be much closer to it  – you can see the acceleration.
I’m developing a deck around this – but felt I didn’t want to wait to share the news – and perhaps, get insight from my readers that I can use  (I don’t get the whole picture – but I don’t know anyone who does – but, maybe, together – we can make sense of all of this).


Read more: http://www.webmetricsguru.com/archives/2009/12/400-rise-in-social-media-traffic-due-to-search-engines-google/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WebMetricsGuru+%28WebMetricsGuru%29&utm_content=Google+Reader#ixzz0ax7XFekV
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