Facebook seems to have overtaken Google as the number one entry point to the web according to the new Hitwise data. Even though they serve two different purposes (searching versus social networking in its broadest sense) it marks an important turning point for the increasingly central role of the social web:
Starting with the web means to start with Google as “the start page for the Internet” (Dodge, 2007) becae “Google has become such a commonly used resource that people are beginning to regard it as synonymous with the Web.†(Searls in Gudrais, 2007) (Helmond 2008: 22)
The web has always been social, with ‘Web 1.0’ systems and software like e-mail, mailinglists, fora, IRC and ICQ but Social Software and the social web is typically associated with Web 2.0 platforms that enable one-t0-many broadcasts and publications to many-to-many. The social web is taking over from the information web as the starting point of the web.
via the Next Web.