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Facebook Better than Porn?

In the world of internet searches and usage, there has officially been a changing of the guard. While pornography and adult sites used to reign supreme as the number one reason people flocked to the web, it seems people are now more concerned with updating their MySpace and Facebook pages.

That’s right. Social networking sites are officially more popular with the 18 to 24 year old demographic than porn. Bill Tancer, the author of Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why It Matters, also found that celebrities and politics were hot search topics.

While most people would think trading porn for politics is a step in the right direction, they might be disappointed to find that there is little searching being done for actual political policies or information. Searches are geared instead towards images—especially for vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin.

And successful media outlets are picking up on this trend. For example, Michelle Obama was recently added to People magazine’s “10 Best Dressed Women,” a list usually reserved for Hollywood’s A-list actresses. But her appearance is bound to sell issues. People are interested in politics. They’re just interested in the visual side of it.

The smart online company will acknowledge this trend and make use of it. If you want to remain relevant to the younger demographic (the ones most likely to purchase from online stores), implement a social networking aspect to your site. Google has an application called Friend Connect that can help by adding an internal social network specific to your website.

And keep your site visual. High speed internet has made our internet experience nearly instantaneous, so users are loath to read too much text. Always balance the information with exciting, attention-grabbing graphics.

Ignoring current usage trends could mean your site is passed up for Facebook. Heck, you might even find yourself less popular than porn.