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iePlexus Social Media News Brief: March 19, 2010

Google no longer in first place. What social media site has taken the gold from the giant search engine?  Then, can the battle between Google & China soon be over? Why a letter from several companies may have given the world a big clue that the end is near.  And one of the most anticipated music videos of the year, gets beat out by a cover version in this week’s viral video. Find out what happened this week in iePlexus’ Social Media News Brief.

Facebook has beat out google as the most visited site on the web in the US.  Hitwise confirmed that sometime between March 7 and March 13, that the social network site passed the search engine, and has maintained it’s climb.   You may recall this past Christmas, and New Years Day, when Facebook was the most visit sites for the day, but now this climb to the top is indefinite.  Last year at the same time, Google had roughly 6.5% of all US traffic while Facebook had only 2.4% of the US’s traffic.  Today, the two companies bring in more than 14% of all internet views in the US with Facebook having 7.07% of traffic, while Google has 7.03%. 

New details emerge this week in the battle between Google & China.  27 of Google’s business partners in China wrote a letter to the search engine asking whether or not the search engine plans on staying in the country or not because many of them are starting not only to loose business but employees as well.  Marsha Wang, Google’s China spokeswoman told CNN this week that the company has been quiet because there haven’t been any updates to share because the position between China and Google has not moved.  However, under Chinese laws, internet operators in the country are expected to renew their license to if they wish to continue operations with in China by the end of the March.  Wang wouldn’t comment whether the company plans to renew its license. “Usually the re-registration will be carried out in March as required by the Chinese government. Right now we don’t have any update.”  However news sources in China are reporting this morning that the company plans on abandoning the country on April 10. The news comes from an unidentified Google China employee, who allegedly, said that Google gave its China employees the option of moving to the company’s U.S. headquarters or working for its Asia-Pacific operations.  An official statement from Google is expected on Monday.  You can be sure to find out the latest details as they happen from our blog.

 Have you ever wondered how much money your video on YouTube could make you?  Well if it turns into one of the most watched viral videos ever, you could be seeing a nice profit.  David DeVore, other wise known as the dad that shot the infamous clip of “David after Dentist” spoke at the South by Southwest conference this week.  The video has been viewed more than 54 million times, which has been enough for DeVore to quit his job and cash in on the minute and 59 seconds of home video he shot.  He said that he originally shot the video for two reasons: 1. So that his wife who couldn’t attend the dental surgery, could see that David was OK after having an extra tooth removed. And 2, to show David, who was nervous about the procedure, that the anticipation is often the worst part.  He originally posted the video to Facebook, but since not all of his relatives were members of the social-networking site, he decided to uploaded it to YouTube, never thinking anyone beside friends and family would watch it.  Although he wouldn’t say exactly how much the family was making, he did say it was at least six figures.  The family has also made the video their home business, selling David after Dentist merchandise.  Devore sells that the money raise will send David to college.

 And finally, last week Lady Gaga released the much anticipated music video for her song Telephone, which also featured Beyonce.  The video hit the web last Friday and has since seen been since just over 700,000 times, but Nataly Dawn and Jack Conte decided to do a cover of the song, which they posted on Tuesday, which has been seen just as many times as the Lady Gaga Music video.