MySpace as a Google Threat?
Posted on May 27, 2006
A Macworld article includes comments from Bill Tancer, Hitwise's general research manager, that MySpace is Google's biggest threat.
In the U.S., it ranks second only to Yahoo Inc. in page views, and drew almost 5 percent of all Web site visits in March, ahead even of mighty Google Inc., which drew little over 4 percent, according to Hitwise Pty. Ltd.Google may not have to worry about MySpace if a downturn has started as some have suggested. MySpace also faces widespread criticsm that it is not safe and there is even a bill called DOPA targeting MySpace use by minors in schools and libraries. MySpace is also a growing target for scams. However, MySpace's brand name keeps getting bigger and bigger. When bloggers thought up names for the upcoming Martha Stewart social network the suggested name was MarthaSpace not Marthabo, Martha Pages or Marthabook. Google may not have to worry about MySpace but the rest of the social networks are going to have an extremely difficult time catching the teen juggernaut that is MySpace.com.It currently has over 73 million registered users worldwide, and adds about 250,000 new ones every day, according to a MySpace spokesman.
Users set up personal profile pages, where they can post photos, keep a blog journal, link to friends' profiles and see messages left by others. Teens seem to use their profile pages mostly to post notes to their friends and classmates, commenting on parties they went to or things that happened at school.
It has unexpectedly become the preferred Web starting point, snatching that title from Google in the same way Google took it from Yahoo, says Bill Tancer, Hitwise's general research manager.
"Although it's not a search engine, it's the biggest threat to Google today because it's taking over as the place you go to first on the Internet," Tancer says.