Identity management provider Janrain has just released its latest usage study detailing what social networks and services people use to sign in and share activities across the web.
As in its last report back in April, Google and Facebookcontinue to dominate websites that offer third-party login options. Across the 250,000 sites that use Janrain Engage,Google
represents the preferred sign-in option for 38% of users.
Facebook
is in second place, with 24% of sign-ins and Yahoo is in third place with 14%. Twitter, which is a popular option in certain segments, only accounts for 5% of generalized sign-in data.
Google is the dominant catch-all login in the aggregate, but other services, particularly Facebook, really take the lead when websites are segmented by type.
For example, for news media sites, Yahoo represents approximately 34% of all logins. For magazine publishers, Facebook is the clear choice amongst website visitors. Fifty-seven percent of logins are from Facebook, nearly triple its nearest competitor, Google, at 20%.
Likewise, with music sites, Facebook leads with 55% of logins and second place Twitter is at 18%. Retailbrand logins are also largely dominated by Facebook.
It makes sense that Facebook has such a strong presence in magazines, retail brands and in music. This can likely be tied with the brand and publishers’ usage of Facebook pages.
Facebook and Twitter Dominate Sharing
More and more publishers are integrating sharing options like Facebook Like buttons or the new Twitter Tweet buttons into their sites. Many publishers are seeing increases in traffic as a direct result of these sharing tools.
According to Janrain’s data, Facebook is the preferred sharing network for 53% of users. Twitter is close behind with 37%. Keep in mind, Janrain’s platform allows users to cross-share to multiple networks at once, which indicates that there may be some overlap.
Still, this is an important distinction from the single sign-in data. To us, this represents that while Google may be used as a frequent sign-in option — perhaps because of how closely the service is tied to an e-mail address — when it comes to engaging and identifying with information online, Facebook and Twitter are where users value their time.
by Christina Warren Mashable August 16, 2010
