Interesting news to arise from Nielsen Online is that social networking is continuing to increase. Statistics show that the number of minute’s users spent on social networking sites increased by 82% since May 2008.
Facebook is still top with 144.3 million visitors however interestingly it is Twitter once again that steals the show as it was identified as the fasted growing web brand with unique visitors increasing from 1.2 million last year to 18.2 million this year. This is a staggering 1,448% increase!
On the subject of social media Facebook has advanced in the development of real time information. In a blatant counter to Twitter it is launching a beta version of it Publisher feature which is the main place to add content such as photos and videos. Members will now be able to select how public or private the content they share is. Facebook state that the new Publisher Privacy Control gives you the opportunity to answer the question, “Who do you want to tell?” as easily as you answer the question, “What’s on your mind?”. Users will be able to allow content they post available to whoever they want from just friends to everyone where anyone on or off Facebook can see it.
This move apparently might encourage people to share more information on the web knowing that they have control over exactly who sees it.
To top that Facebook have also launched a Live Stream Box feature. The feature is something developers can take advantage of to enable Facebook users to update their statuses in real time as they witness events online. Tom Whitnah on the official Facebook Blog States that:
“users log in using Facebook Connect and share updates that appear both within the Live Stream Box and on their Facebook profiles and in their friends’ home page Streams. Each post includes a link back to the Live Stream Box on your site so users can discover the live event and immediately join based on their friends’ recommendations.”
It seems that the battle to become the dominant force in real time on the web has stepped up a notch. Facebook may have a lot more users than Twitter however in reality how many of these users are fully participating and active members? I mean I have 220 friends on my Facebook account (don’t laugh) and I would say that of those roughly estimating 50% make status updates and about 20% of these do so regularly. Twitter appears to be a much more active platform for updates and is continuing to rise. It will be interesting to see whether the changes Facebook have made will generate more active users. For the time being however let the battle continue…!