Facebook’s glory days won’t last forever.

My guesstimate: in two years, another social networking site will have begun to seriously compete with Facebook.

MySpace was the first major general social networking site to recruit users worldwide, leaving dozens of lesser-known sites like Friendster and Xanga in the dust.

Although MySpace is still popular, since it opened its doors to the general public in 2006, Facebook by far has amassed the most users – an estimated 500 million.

The social networking/microblogging site Twitter has also accumulated a strong following with more than 105 million users; about 300,000 new users are signing up per day.

Now, after riding high for several years, Facebook may be facing a legitimate competitor: Google.

What Facebook is to social networking, Google is to Internet searching.

Google already operates some social networking sites, including Orkut and other services such as the photo sharing site Picasa and the video sharing site YouTube, but it does not have anything that compares to Facebook.

Google has not yet commented on the industry rumors that it is busy working on a social networking project; the name “Google Me” has been thrown around tech circles.

It is unclear whether Google plans to consolidate some of its services or start a site from the ground up.

But a site using the Facebook foundation and its components can’t compete with a well-established giant. It’s been tried by many, and they have failed.

Facebook could be upgraded on so many levels, and a fresh new site could provide former Facebookers, Facebook haters and even those just looking for something different a new toy to play with.

Everyone said MySpace was silly, then they joined it.

Everyone said Facebook was just another MySpace, then most of them ditched it.

Twitter has been gaining followers, and is growing rapidly every day.

Facebook isn’t untouchable.

A big player like Google, or even just something bigger, better and more intriguing, will be on its heels in no time.

Katie Johnson is managing editor of the Niles Daily Star, Cassopolis Vigilant, Edwardsburg Argus and Off the Water. E-mail her at katie.johnson@leaderpub.com.