Blaglash.com

Alexa’s got a weird way of reporting (this chart actually means out of every one million users of the internet, x number of users visited site y and z on average), but what you can tell in this chart is exactly what’s creating such heated debate.

Facebook and Myspace are now neck-and-neck with regards to total social network internet traffic.

Which has gotten all sorts of different people all sorts of crazy. You’ve probably read things like “Holy cow! Look at what Facebook has done in the past year! Imagine where that line will be a year from now!”

But somehow, through all of this, I’ve seen nobody mention something so brutally, hysterically, painfully obvious that its exemption from this debate is a temple-scratcher:

Look at the turn of the new year, when Facebook and Myspace finally came head to head with overall traffic and then check out what happened.

Facebook’s traffic growth plateaued. Hard.

Compared from the growth between last March and last December, Facebook’s current rise in traffic is practically nonexistant.

So what’s my point, then?

At some point you’ll reach a point in any market when everybody’s got a Model T.

Q1 2008 is now behind us and people are still looking at the Model A and the Model T like they’re going to keep selling like hotcakes, when they’ve already tapped the market.

Let me guess: Reading this blog isn’t the first time you’ve heard of either Myspace or Facebook.

Let me guess again: You already have (possibly multiple) registered accounts at both (and if you don’t, you have a reason beyond ignorance of their product).

So it should be stated, then, that while Facebook’s growth over the past year was impressive, they’ve now reached their growth potential. And while Myspace can look like a worn behemoth in comparison, it is only because they tapped the market long before Facebook.

So what do I suggest?

Be thankful that these sites were invented four years ago for the memories they have given us.

And get Facebook to launch @facebook.com email addresses and a Facebook-centric Firefox clone web browser in conjunction with their new rich IM so their users will never have to leave their branded environment.