Will Facebook overtake Google?

A week ago we posted a series of ‘HOW TO’ blog posts: How to leverage your social media marketing with Facebook.

We talked about the world’s largest social network and how it’s finally emerging as a big-time B2B tool. After all the potential of reaching 500 million users (no matter what business you’re in) is something that shouldn’t be ignored. Both companies have found a place in our lives that most of us simply take for granted. ‘Google it’ has become a part of our vocabulary with Facebook clearly the leader in social networking.

If you’re in business and you’re still hedging on Facebook – think again. I came across a chart this morning that I thought I’d pass on. According to Jacques Mattheij, a programmer and sometime blogger, thinks that if Facebook continues to grow with the same intensity we’ve seen recently, we’ll see it outpacing Google in the next 18 months. And, based on what I see, it’s a fairly safe prediction to assume a takeover is on the horizon.

Using public sites Alexa and Compete he plotted out the growth of the two sites. Alexa shows steady growth with Facebook keeping pace, but still entrenched in the number two position. However, based on their current growth rate, when you compare the two sites the graph will show you that at some time in the not to distant future Facebook will overtake Google.

In his Alexa graph he has extended the trend lines to the right showing how and when they could possibly meet – which according to this graph is sometime in the first quarter of 2012.

Just to be fare, we’ve also included a chart prepared by Silicon Alley Insider. They asked ComScore to prepare a graph using the same data. As you can see the trend holds, however it appears that the takeover won’t happen as soon.

Judge for yourself. The question I pose is: how can Facebook help your B2B company and will it be a part of your Internet marketing strategy now or in the future?

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-google-facebook-unique-visitors-2010-8