Facebook and Social Startups Meme.

We talks about how Facebook rose in traffic ranking in the US, growing past Google on the Christmas Eve and Day. That was indeed quite remarkable but not very surprising given that it was bound to happen. Now that by no way means that either of the two brands are in any way in the same category or could be associated but it just shows that if a site has a lot more to offer it can actually score better than what anyone might anticipate.

The trends released by Hitwise earlier today showed that the growth of social network had begun from December 22nd beginning from 3% and rising all the way to over 4.5% on 25th December. And while it rose slow and steady to that much, the very next day it dropped to 3.6%. That just shows that traffic was so directly dependant on the trend set by the holiday season.

So What Made Facebook Beat Google?

I won’t actually call it Facebook beating Google in any manner, but it does state one thing for sure that users look for a lot when it comes to holidays, more than just search. While search still outranks the social network, but all those queries would usually include Christmas related queries. Which means that the links will eventually be directed where users have been clicking the most. Of course once users make way to the site they have it going viral by sharing it with friends giving them a direct access to the application/link.

Now, Facebook has already gone past 350 Million and with apps like Zynga that have more than 70 million active monthly users, for one, chances are much higher for user being involved with the social network. Now that was for one app that has been used quite regularly by the social network’s users, there was a plethora of applications for Christmas that saw quite a growth in less than a week before Christmas. And that more or less justifies the sudden drop too as right after the Christmas day all that rush just disappeared and Facebook is back to reality with traffic below Google.