If I ask you what search terms have been holding the majority of the top 10 quickest growing positions in search engines for the last 3 years, you probably would think about some keywords related to political news or trendy cars, or energy sources, or something else similar in buzz or importance. Though big events, such as summer Olympiad in Beijing in 2008, do take their share of the top searches, this share is surprisingly small.
The reality is the majority of top keywords are not related to super-cool gadgets and uber-hot cars. Those top searches are related to people and social networks.
In fact, in 2007 people-related searches hold a lion 30% share of all searches in Google and Yahoo.
If you click on this link: Amazing Stats for People-Related Searches, you’ll see that two top links on that page point to reliable sources that proof this fact. First link will lead you to the article about People Search SIG hosted by Google on May 22, 2007 and presided over by Michael Arrington (TechCrunch).
Second one is related to the article published on well-respected webpronews.com
People search for celebrities, sport stars, political figures, for their relatives, for their classmates, a lot of different types of background checks are done online too. This list could go on and on, it’s almost endless.
There are phone searches, searches by social security and other identification numbers, searches by driving license, email searches and many other different searches you could ever think of.
In 2008 the share of people-related searches grew even bigger. If you look at 2008 Year-End Google Zeitgeist, you see that 7 out of 10 fastest-rising global searches were related to people or social networks.
In 2009 the tendency didn’t change a bit. Just look at 2009 Year-End Google Zeitgeist. Sure, now we see different names on the list. Sarah Palin, for example, lost first search position to Michael Jackson. Facebook and Tuenti (popular private Spanish social network, by invitation-only) are only 2 searches that manage to maintain their position on a top list of fastest growing searches for both years.
But this doesn’t really matter. What matters is that 7 out of 10 top searches are related to people searches and social networks, yet again. I don’t divide people-related searches and searches for social networks, because social networks are nothing more and nothing less than different ways for people to communicate with each other.
Social networks are created for people, built around people, and talk about people. Hence, for the purpose of this article, each social network could be considered a “person” with its own character, its own flavor, likes/dislikes, and so on.
Facebook, for example, appeared to be a young woman. To me “Facebook” sounds more like a male name, but hey the social network’s gender is defined by stats, not by my opinion. According to quantcast.com’s demographics, Facebook has predominately female audience, so I’ll refer to her as a “she” from now on.
This young woman is dedicated to build relationships and she is not shy in experimenting with new applications that would enhance her personality. She is not a stranger to fashion, like to be informed about latest news, has a sense of humor and somewhat interested in politics.
Myspace is a young dude interested in music and games. He is a little bit too chatty, curious about resources that might help him to enhance his education, he has a sense of humor, somewhat groomed about his appearance and believe in horoscopes.
LinkedIn is an older well-educated guy with a successful career and higher-than average income.
Twitter is a young confident girl and somewhat opinionated fashionista with strong leadership skills. She is humorous, influential, interested in politics, like to be informed, but not inundated. Usually owns latest gadgets, likes music and has an inclination to scientific or at least analytical approach in her life. Thoughts about bridal waltz also come to her mind from time to time.
Flickr is a technology-oriented young guy who likes to take pictures. He also likes sci-fi movies, newest technology brands, hot cars. He is politically active, has inquisitive mind, often involved in DIY home improvement projects and donates to charities.
Tagged is a middle-aged woman, most likely a mother who is worried about her job, about her kids’ future and their education in particular. In her limited free time she likes to take her mind of home chores by playing online games, listening to music, reading horoscopes or some fashion news. Sometimes she visits new places.
I just put a human face on a few most popular social networks. There are thousands of social networks, and soon there will be millions of them. And each has its own face, each one could be considred a “person” in its own right.
That’s why IMHO, people-searches and social network searches should be regarded in any search continuum as apples from the same tree.
The point is, this particular type of searches takes a huge share of any search pie. And of course there are many companies that gladly take a piece of this lucrative action.
If you’re interested in any particular type of search, you can easily find a company that delivers that particular service. And if company is smart, it also seizes the opportunity to considerably increase its revenue by creating affiliate programs for its services.
One company decided to combine different type of searches under one roof and built an impressive business opportunity, both for itself and for its affiliates. It gives people (for free) their own small “search engines” targeting different people-related search queries, with 9 built-in income streams.
If you want one of those, you can grab it here: Your Own People Search Engine.
If you’re wondering how your search engine might look like, here is an example: Sudden People Search.
Yes, I know, it looks very plain and even dull. But this particular design was thoroughly tested, and it delivers the best results.
So go get your own search engine and enjoy tasting a piece of this delicious pie!
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