Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are increasing in importance for many web sites as social traffic has begun to rival and, in some cases, overtake organic search traffic as the single biggest traffic source. This influx of traffic is generated by shared links, photos, and videos. Consider this – 5 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook every week!

Techcrunch  asked Gigya for some stats. Gigya powers article, photo or vide content sharing widgets on more than 5,000 content sites, including ABC.com. NBA.com, PGA.com, and others. Over the past 30 days alone, folks have shared almost a million items over the Gigya network. Facebook and Twitter dominate this syndication with about three quarters of all shared items. Here is how the services break down:

Distribution of shared items

• Facebook: 44%
• Twitter: 29%
• Yahoo:18%
• MySpace:9%

Facebook Chat is also the clear leader in content shared via chat, making up more than half of all live event chats measured by Gigya.

Live Event Chat:

• Facebook: 56%
• Twitter: 28%
• Yahoo: 9%
• MySpace: 7%

A broader view of sharing on the Web comes from a Gigya competitor AddThis which includes measurements for e-mail and printing out content. AddThis has its sharing buttons on more than 600,000 Websites. AddThis also shows Facebook on top when it comes to sharing content on the Web, but with a smaller 33 percent share while Twitter is at 9 percent. Even with these broader numbers, however, more than 40 percent of sharing is through Facebook and Twitter combined.

Top 10 Services, Overall via AddThis

• Facebook: 33%
• Email: 13%
• Print:9%
• Twitter: 9%
• Favorites: 8%
• Google: 6%
• MySpace: 6%
• Digg: 3%
• Live: 3%
• Delicious: 3%

About a month ago, we’ve heard reports that MySpace and Facebook aren’t quite the archenemies they once were. In fact,  MySpace was to reportedly going to implement Facebook Connect which would allow users to log into MySpace with their  Facebook credentials.

MySpace has indeed implemented Facebook Connect on its very own Fan Video service. This is a very important step considering MySpace was once the undisputed king of social networking and this arguably signifies the end of the “MySpace era”.

It has become glaringly obvious to MySpace that Facebook has taken over when it comes to growth and overall number of users. As a result, MySpace has chosen to focus itself on a couple of specific niches -  music, video and entertainment; all areas which Facebook never fully developed. Considering this recent partnership, I expect more implementations of Facebook Connect on MySpace in 2010.

What are your thoughts? Is this a good move by MySpace / Facebook?

Myspace Video Plummets

Video consumption online has exploded in the U.S. and has only been further increased with the emergence of Hulu and others. Ironically, for entertainment-heavy and Facebook competitor, MySpace, unique views and videos served have declined sharply.

Consider these stats depicting the monumental growth in video consumption in the U.S. in November 2009. According to Comscore, 170.6 million U.S. residents watched almost 31 billion videos, an average of 182 videos per person. That’s a big increase from 146 million unique viewers and 12.7 billion videos, an average of  87 videos per viewer, in November 2008.

MySpace, admittingly, is more noted for their strong focus on recording artists and entertainment in general, pointed out that, despite declines in unique viewers and videos watched, on a per user basis, its online video engagement is up.

In an e-mailed statement, Myspace  said:

“Our user engagement numbers for video were higher than ever — highly engaged users are staying on MySpace and watching more videos.”

That said, there is no denying the fact that the overall trend in the U.S. is an increase in both unique viewers and in videos watched, not a decrease.

What are your thoughts? Is this yet another sign of the ‘end’ as we know it for Myspace? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Welcome to the inaugural post of Only Facebook! It seems fitting that we kick off the blog with such breaking news – the Telegraph.co.uk announced earlier today Myspace and Facebook are engaging in talks around sharing content. MySpace’s CEO Owen Van Natta is quoted as saying “we are in talks with Facebook, and other sites, about how we could partner with them.”

The move could potentially see MySpace music and video footage being shared on Facebook via its Connect platform. This would be a huge win for Facebook as Myspace tends to still be the social platform of choice for musicians.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, told The Telegraph: “Facebook is focussing on building the best technology which helps people share content, while at MySpace they are focussing on more a content-led strategy. We would like to have their content, as we already do with many other sites, shared across our network because it is good for our users.”

What are you thoughts? Is this a good move by Myspace?