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Web-traffic analysis site Compete has come out with a ranking of the top 50 sites for September that gives a quick look at the ever-changing online landscape.

While there may be arguments about the accuracy of any given traffic analysis, if the bias is retained across the board, then we can look at the change, which is where the real interesting numbers come out.

Much has been written about the technology aspects of cloud computing and its game-changing service characteristics. But focusing only on technology and service aspects of the cloud ignores the fact that cloud computing is in actuality more of a disruptive business model than just a combination of technology changes.

By changing the potential speed of IT services provisioning from weeks to hours and reducing the cost of investment through on-demand self-service, cloud computing promises to transform the competitive advantage a business can have. Companies large and small may be able to quickly jump-start new initiatives and enter new markets because cloud computing offers reductions in time and a low cost of entry, thus allowing them to leapfrog the competition.

Once upon a time, smartphones were mostly about connecting busy professionals with their email accounts while on the go. Now that smartphones have reached the mainstream consumer market, however, people are looking for more than just email access - and a surprisingly large number of smartphones hardly ever leave their owners' homes.

According to a new study from Web analytics firm Compete, 74% of smartphone owners now primarily use their devices for personal reasons, and they often spent the most amount of time with the device at home.

Earlier today, conversation tracking site UberVu launched Compare. The service allows you type your name and a competitor's name into search boxes to produce information on your competing brand conversations on Twitter, Blogger, Friendfeed, Facebook, WordPress, HackerNews and Youtube. After all, if social media is the lead generator and customer service tool that we think it is, then it's important for us to know where we stand against our competitors.

We already knew that Facebook had usurped Yahoo's spot as the Web's second-most visited website in the U.S. in January, but today, Web analytics firm Compete also released its data for the rest of the top 50 sites in in the U.S. Unsurprisingly, most shopping sites registered a large drop in unique visitors since December, while tax services are seeing some of the highest month-to-month growth rates.

Social network Facebook has passed Yahoo! and is now nearing Google in the #1 spot for most monthly unique visitors from the US, according to traffic analyst firm Compete. Compete just published its January numbers this morning and reported that nearly 134 million US web users visited Facebook last month. Google saw nearly 148 million.

Google's US traffic grew by just over 1 million visitors between December and January. Facebook's traffic grew by almost 1.5 million. Yahoo's traffic fell by almost 1.5 million users. As Compete's Aaron Prebluda writes, Google passed Yahoo 2 years ago this month "and never looked back." This isn't just jockeying between companies, though. We may be witnessing the eclipse of search by social networking.

In a blog post from 2006 titled, "The Art of Driving Your Competition Crazy," Silicon Valley venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki wrote, "you cannot drive your competition crazy unless you understand their strengths and weaknesses." Kawasaki undoubtedly knows what he's talking about, and his advice - while almost 4 years old - still rings true today.

If you've got a great idea for a startup, knowing as much about your potential competitors is invaluable, and the people behind Competitious know this as well as anyone. That's why they created their handy application for keeping close tabs on the competition.

Smartphone users are becoming increasingly comfortable with using their phones to shop online. According to new data from Compete, about 37% of smartphone users have purchased something with their handset in the last six months. Among the most popular items that these users bought were music, books, DVDs, video games and movie tickets. At the same time, though, Compete also found that smartphone users are very likely to abandon shopping sites that haven't been optimized for mobile usage. Almost 8% of smartphone owners who tried to buy something from their phone were simply unable to do so.

After months of slow but steady increases in its market share, Bing's share of the search market in the US and globally fell for the first time in September. According to StatCounter's Global Stats, Bing's share of the search market in the US fell from 9.64% in August to 8.51% last month. Globally, Bing didn't fare much better, as it went from 3.58% to 3.25%. Yahoo's share went from 10.5% in August to only 9.4% in September. The combined share of Bing and Yahoo has now fallen to 17.91%.

Since the launch of Bing, watching the developments in the search engine market is finally interesting again. According to the latest data from Compete for July, Bing continues to grow slowly but surely. At the same time, though, Compete notes that Bing has not been able to convert its growing search share into a rise in paid clicks on ads on the site. In July, Bing's sponsored click rate fell slightly to 5.5%, even though in June, it still saw an impressive growth in paid clicks.