Facebook, the social networking juggernaut has now grown into a significant traffic source. The meteoric rise of the website is no secret – Facebook is already the most popular social networking website in the world, leaving competitors MySpace and Orkut far, far behind. The website is the number one traffic driver to news sources. However, Facebook is now also strategically poised to become a major Internet hub of the likes of Google and Yahoo.

Since early 2010, Facebook has been acknowledged as the third most popular website on the Internet. Now it seems to be getting ready to take on Google. Facebook is positioning itself as a significant value resource, providing increasingly targeted advertising to users while meticulously harvesting precise user data for marketing purposes. Its business model of connecting with consumers at a deeper level is a USP that is making many competitors nervous.

Businesses are already using Facebook to drive sales. EasyJet has is now actually selling airline tickets on its Facebook Page, choosing to connect directly with customers. Such a marketing tactic can provide immediate conversions without the need for tedious funnelling. This may represents a veritable sea change in Internet marketing practices. According to Hitwise, Facebook has been getting more traffic in America than Google during certain time periods in Christmas and March. Will Facebook ever grow larger than Google, effectively dethroning the big G? We have yet to find out.

This article is taken from the April edition of the interaction newsletter. In one of the articles, Waqar Ali Shah wrote a piece about Facebook dethroning Google.