It was building for a while, but 2009 saw the real start of social media search wars. The competition between social media sites and traditional search really heated up in 2009, and it has the potential to change the way search works forever.

The mini-search engines of individual social media sites present some tough competition for the main search engines, which are eager to maintain their dominance. As internet users spend more time on social media sites, they spend more time looking for information from within those sites. There once was a time when you couldn’t get a news update if you were in the middle of catching up with your social media connections. No more. Social media sites are realising their potential to grab and maintain a hold over a large portion of internet traffic.

This hold is exactly what the main search engines are eager to fight, hence moves like Google’s recent real-time search methods. The search engines have been beside themselves trying to forge alliances with the main social media sites, with varied success. Google has managed to get most of the main sites on board to provide real-time updates for its improved real-time algorithm, but the question of how to retain users on Google is still unresolved.

Social media – the way of the future

…With emphasis on future. At the moment, the search engines are still the movers and shakers of search. On a per-second basis, none of the social media sites see anywhere near as much action as Google, Yahoo! or even Bing:

*Google records around 34,000 searches per second averaged out through the day, although this is not an official figure
*Yahoo and Bing receive around 3,200 and 900 searches per second respectively
*Facebook is only just creeping up on Bing’s activities with an average 700 status updates per second
*Twitter recently released stats that set the micro-blog at 600 posts per second
*Google Buzz, a new player on the social media court, received around 200 posts per second.

At the moment, with a lead of hundreds of millions of user activities each day, Google has nothing to worry about. Any move to cut out the social media search market might seem a little premature. Internet trends usually have their foundations a few years before they fully take hold, however, so Google and its contemporaries are right to be tackling the problem right now.

How this will impact on SEO

The changing landscape of the search industry always has an SEO impact. Search engine optimisation experts are constantly plotting out contingency plans to allow for shifts in user behaviour. Just because Google’s king today doesn’t mean they will be tomorrow.

Social media should already be a part of a smart site’s search engine optimisation strategy, and you can talk to our experts at SEO Consult Australia. It’s a good idea to keep tabs on the changes in social media search and research what your target user groups are doing. Participation might give you the edge you need in the future.