A recent report from Janrain analyzes the preferred networks for social logins and social sharing among 350,000 websites worldwide using Janrain Engage. Q1 of 2011 marks the first time Facebook has overtaken Google as the most popular choice for social sign-ins since the company started reporting these stats back in January 2010. Thirty-five percent of online users now choose to sign-in to sites with a Facebook account, up from 27% in Q4 of 2010. This gain comes directly at Google’s expense, now down to 31% (from 38% in Q4 of 2010, as reported by eMarketer).
The study also breaks down social logins by type of site – news media, magazine publishers, retail, entertainment, music, and mobile – with Facebook remaining in the lead across the board.
For news media:
- Facebook leads at 32%
- Yahoo! holds a strong second at 28%
- Google ranks third with 22%
For magazine publishers:
- Facebook dominates with 51% (down from 57% two quarters ago)
- Google is far behind at 21%
- Yahoo! trails at 15%
For retail sites:
- Facebook continues steady growth and reaches 50% (a 10% gain year-over-year)
- Google remains steady at 22%
- Yahoo! drops down to 16% (an 11% loss year-over-year)
For mobile:
- Facebook leads at 34%
- Google follows closely behind at 33%
- Twitter’s share is 11%, not surprisingly “greater on mobile devices than desktop platforms”
While Twitter has seen no significant rise in popularity as a sign-in provider, it’s second only to Facebook as the most popular social sharing destination. Janrain reports “while most online users do not yet self-select Twitter as their primary online identity, the Twitter stream exerts great influence as a hub for content-sharing and a navigator to other sites across the web.” LinkedIn also makes a good showing for social sharing, especially on sites with a B2B focus.
Data for this report is analyzed each quarter from the 350,000 websites worldwide that use Janrain Engage.
