Social Networks Gaining on Internet Portals

Compete writes "We have some interesting analysis on how Social Networking sites compare to portals. From a sample size of around 2 million US people, Compete concludes that social networking sites are quickly approaching the traffic level of the big portals like Google and Yahoo. They liken the growth of SNS to email in the 90's. Their key findings: 1. In June, 2 out of every 3 people online visited a social networking site 2. Since January 2004, the number of people visiting or taking part in one of the top online social networks has grown by over 109% 3. Social networking sites are now close to eclipsing traffic to the giants — Google and Yahoo"

Comments

Re:In the minority again

[AdamWeeden]

In a way I agree. However, myspace, and by extension other sites like it, DO have some utility. After my wife signed up for a myspace account she ended up getting in touch with quite a few friends from school. I decided to get an account just to see how many of my friends I could get in touch with again, and I was surprised that within one day I had gotten back in touch with numerous good friends and family members that I had lost the contact information for. Now all I do is check it every once in a while (every other week or so) and browse new additions to my high school/college classes and see if it's anyone I would want to get back in touch with. Not to mention any new messages I receive in myspace (including friend requests) I have sent to my email.