

All traffic is not equal - wallflower

All traffic is not equal.<p>I'd like to highlight this really cogent comment on the TechCrunch article "Memo to Twitter"<p>At the heart of the issue is the simple fact supposed technorati and the media continuously drive the concept of all traffic being equal. This misconstrues data and unless you exercise due diligence, investment. Oh, but people stopped reading prospectus long time ago right.<p>There will always be a new number 1 or even top ten. What no one discusses is that as more people join the internet (globally), its conceivable that a site could loose its spot without loosing its traffic by merely being eclipsed. Which brings us to Facebook and Google. Why do we compare the two. Google is a search engine, email, video and a full out blog platform. Is Facebook any of these? No, but we compare. It's clear that a bus stop is only a portal to other places, much like a search engine, it's not a destination. Facebook is a destination while Google's search engine is a means of finding a destination, so why the comparisons?<p>Facebook doesn't provide any of Google's functionality nor that of its other properties. The reality is they are complementary. Many Google users have Facebook accounts as Facebook users have Youtube accounts and GMail accounts and Blogger accounts. Until the supposed stats of the day take functionality into account they won't be much more than indicators of traffic at the moment but nothing else.&#60;p&#62;There is popular and then there is necessary. Of all the services up top and even Yahoo's struggles, why do we still see so many GMail, Yahoo, MSN, and even AOL email addresses despite the coming and eventual going of Facebook, Myspace, Geocities, Orchid and whatever else? That's probably how you know most of this stuff is a fad, because at the end of the day no matter how popular the current #1 is or will be, perhaps the best way to determine metrics is by the staying power of a domain name in the email address of people using the internet. Sadly, its not very sexy and doesn't make for great headlines.<p>-Michael A. De Bose<p>http://michaeladebose.collected.info/
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slater
I think the issue is not that anyone is comparing them as equals (as Google
isn't a social network, and Facebook isn't a search engine), but that Facebook
can take the place of some specific Google searches.

Consider searching for a restaurant in the area you're in. With Facebook, you
have the choice of asking your friends (whom you trust), OR you can go wading
into Google's search results and manually sort through the SEO'd "111-best-
restaurant-review-site.com"-style garbage that populates the first few search
result pages.

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Travis
I'm not sure what your central statement is here.

Are you criticizing the technorati for not explicitly mentioning different
types of traffic in relation to their value, rather than just their
popularity? That info isn't usually available to outsiders, and it is
difficult to convey in a concise manner (i.e., no more than a sentence in an
article).

Are you criticizing people who compare Google and Facebook? Beyond the fact
that they (along with Apple) are 2 of the highest technology companies, with
the best public ratings, they are also 2 sites that have the biggest impact on
the internet. Also, they are currently lining up to fight for traffic at the
point of purchase (which causes different values for different types of
traffic, point 1 above). They can be framed as philosophically different
approaches to the same problem: how do you get people to buy something on the
internet? Even their approaches are fundamentally different: algorithmic
versus social graph. It would seem to make sense to compare those two
companies (although I agree, we probably aren't going to see one "beat" the
other, because there is room for both of them).

Also, what's with the URL and signature on your post? The HN comments
guidelines state "Please don't sign comments, especially with your url.
They're already signed with your username. If other users want to learn more
about you, they can click on it to see your profile."

