Monday 27 January 2014

Facebook's demise according to Princeton University. Utter Nonsense...Really.



There's a lot of talk about Facebook and its popularity brought on by some Princeton University research which suggests it's about to plummet.

It's got far more coverage than it deserves and is of course headline-grabbing, rather than solidly thought through. 

Their "research" is based on the number of times 'Facebook' appears in Google Search and as to how that's declining and therefore (huge leap of faith required here) that Facebook will lose "80% of its users by 2017".

It is, as Facebook describe it, "utter nonsense".

The reason why Google search of the word 'Facebook' is declining is the growth of mobile. When you have the Facebook App on your phone, you don't have to Search.

Donkeys.

78% of Facebook users are on mobile (870 million people a month) so desktop users are declining. So is desktop. It's like saying 'Twitter' search is down and therefore Twitter is collapsing. Oh dear.

A Facebook data scientist went on to do the same exercise on Google Search for Princeton to prove there would be no students in Princeton by 2021 and no 'air' in the atmosphere by 2060.

Facebook has competition no doubt, from niche social sharing sites but Facebook is not, MySpace. It's share price reached a high this month - £85 billion stg high.

And the real loser in this?
Princeton University.

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