New Trends In Online Traffic

By John M Grohol PsyD
April 5, 2006

I’m trying to make sense of the data this article points to, but no matter how you spin it, the same truth emerges — those sites which had high media profiles in the past year are the sites which received the largest gains in traffic (with the very odd exception of Citysearch, an almost dead company that appears to be experiencing something of an upswing).

Blogger = Blogs (which is arguably not really Web 2.0, considering they’ve been around almost as long as the Web itself).
MySpace = Geocities + Web 2.0 social networking (one could even argue that 5 million users of Geocities’ decline went over to help account for the nearly 30 million new users at MySpace).
Wikipedia = Huge media exposure in 2005 and 2006.

You’ll see this trend continue for years to come. Out of the top 50 sites every year, 4 or 5 will drop off the list, and be replaced be some new players with exponential growth. (Does anyone remember Friendster?) Some of those will stay around on the Top 50 (look at the lasting power of Geocities!), some will eventually fall off.

This “new” trend is not really anything new (as usual) — it’s people finding ways of connecting with other people. That’s what the Internet does best, provides enabling technology to allow people to find and hang out with one another.

While growth is slowing at most top Internet sites, it is skyrocketing at sites focused on social networking, blogging and local information.

The dramatic success of those Internet categories is apparent from a recent online-traffic analysis provided by market research firm ComScore Media Metrix, which examined visitor growth rates among the 50 top Web sites over the past year.

A customer at a cafe in San Francisco uses its wireless Internet access. Traffic at social-networking sites such as MySpace.com, which caters to young users, boomed in 2005.
A customer at a cafe in San Francisco uses its wireless Internet access. Traffic at social-networking sites such as MySpace.com, which caters to young users, boomed in 2005.

Top-ranked sites growing the most, ComScore’s data showed, were Blogger.com, a personal publishing site; MySpace.com, where young people do virtual preening and share musical tastes; Wikipedia, an open reference site jointly edited by millions of people; and Citysearch, a network of local guides focused on cities.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues, and the intersection of technology and psychology since 1992.