Facebook Tops Google As Most Visited Website Of The Year

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has yet another milestone to celebrate.

In addition to being named TIME's Person of the Year and seeing the social network he founded swell to over 550 million members, he can also toast a major triumph over Google: for the first time ever, Facebook topped the list as the most-visited website of the year, ahead of giants like Google, Yahoo, YouTube, and Msn.com.

According to data from Hitwise, which provides online competitive intelligence, Facebook "accounted for 8.93 percent of all U.S. visits between January and November 2010."

Google.com made up 7.19 percent of visits and Yahoo! Mail ranked third with 3.52 percent of visits. Yahoo! claimed 3.30 percent of visits, and YouTube 2.65 percent.

Facebook has soared in the rankings as its share of visits has more than doubled in the past year. In 2009, it was the third most-visited site, behind Google and Yahoo! Mail, with 4.26 percent of visits. In 2008 it ranked ninth on Hitwise's list, trailing Google, MySpace, and eBay.

In an odd twist, Google is actually helping to fuel its competitor's rise by sending search traffic to the social network's site: For the second year in a row, "Facebook" was the top search term of 2010. In second place was "Facebook login," with "Facebook.com" and "www.facebook.com" also cracking the list of top 10 most popular queries.

While visits to Facebook have overtaken hits to Google.com, Google-owned properties--which include web video giant YouTube--actually received a greater share of visits, accounting for 9.85 percent of all U.S. visits. TechCrunch observed that Comscore confirmed Hitwise's findings: "Comscore also shows Facebook.com passing Google.com in visits in November but all Google sites as still having more."

The top websites commanded an ever-greater share of web traffic Hitwise noted in its report. "The top 10 Websites accounted for 33 percent of all U.S. visits between January and November 2010, an increase of 12 percent versus 2009," Hitwise wrote.

Comments

[MrSolo]

10:06 PM on 01/02/2011

There's something wrong with this picture. When a(ny) website enriches its principals but doesn't add one iota of value for the average everyday person, motives become suspect.

[mozartian]

01:12 PM on 01/03/2011

Fanned for having the same thought in my head.

[noob1]

08:12 PM on 01/02/2011

Is that like friendster, eh?

[curiousasheck]

07:05 PM on 01/01/2011

When Facebook can claim having created 23,000 decent paying jobs instead of 1700 then they can start saying they are bigger then Google.

[HekmagaJuximakLives]

05:24 PM on 01/01/2011

Remember that kid in grade school who always smelled like stale milk?

[Jim8]

12:57 PM on 01/01/2011

My advise:
Sell out now, the only way from here is down. History repeats, you know. The next big thing is coming our way, and we love the next big thing.

[Indra]

10:40 AM on 01/01/2011

Haha. Wait till he finds out what a nobody he really is. Zuck sucks the big one.

[bccmeteorites]

08:10 AM on 01/01/2011

Go Julian Assange, man of the decade!

[mojo filter]

08:12 PM on 12/31/2010

Nice. As if his ego isn't big enough already.

[only livin boy in NY]

05:39 PM on 12/31/2010

god help us all

[Adam616]

05:23 PM on 12/31/2010

Zuckerberg zucks, and Facebook fails. Incredible how such a monumentally-boring website has garnered such status.

[BradleyWadley]

01:10 PM on 12/31/2010

I know this is rude but every time I see this guy's picture I want to attack his teeth with a bleach whitening kit...

[netzwerg]

07:24 AM on 12/31/2010

I bet 100€ that this guy is a CIA operative.

[smolensk-lies]

05:35 AM on 12/31/2010

doesnt use his own site.

every click, every message, saved forever.

[EcnelisDoogod]

05:01 AM on 12/31/2010

News Corp's MySpace failed for privacy reasons. But now Facebook users eagerly contribute to their surveillance records (be sure to check out the authors glib response)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/EcnelisDoogod/how-the-google-facebook-w_b_788659_69038408.html

Facebook is MSM's darling: 60 minutes, Time's "Man of the Year", Social Network movie. Google is soooo e-vi!e...

[tomjones]

04:09 AM on 12/31/2010

Facebook may be the most visited but Google and Microsoft have a lot of useful and productivity tools. Google and Microsoft’s tools and services can help you make money but you are likely to waste a lot of time on Facebook. AdSense and PubCenter can make you money. So do the many tools for developers provided by Microsoft and Google. digitalundivide.com