Watching two insanely successful internet companies has been fascinating. Google since the late 90’s has dominated the search space. Facebook recently has taken the lead Social Marketing. What is more important Search or Social?

The answer is both. Search is a powerful way to access information. Hyper-Social communications has forever changed how we connect and communicate. Both will co-exist with each other but I predict Facebook will continue to take the majority of time spent by us on mobile, PC’s or other future devices.

Gartner in a recent report states that by 2012, Facebook will become the hub for social network integration and Web socialization. Through Facebook Connect and other similar mechanisms, Facebook will support and take a leading role in developing the distributed, interoperable social Web. As Facebook continues to grow and outnumber other social networks, this interoperability will become critical to the success and survival of other social networks, communication channels and media sites.

Other social networks (including Twitter) will continue to develop, seeking further adoption and specializations with communication or content areas, but Facebook will represent a common denominator for all of them.

As a small business you may not survive in the next 5 years without effective use of search and Social marketing tools

Gartner Source: http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1278413