Facebook was the top-visited Website for the first time and accounted
for 8.93 percent of all U.S. visits between January and November
2010.
Google.com ranked second with 7.19 percent of visits, followed by
Yahoo! Mail (3.52 percent), Yahoo! (3.30 percent) and YouTube (2.65
percent), according to online measurement service Experian Hitwise.
The combination of Google properties - such as YouTube and email, for
instance - accounted for 9.85 percent of all U.S. visits. Facebook
properties accounted for 8.93 percent, and Yahoo! properties
accounted for 8.12 percent. 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, according to Experian Hitwise
data.
Facebook's move to the top spot shows just how quickly the site has
grown in popularity. Within six years, Facebook has become the
world's largest Web social network with roughly half a billion users
worldwide.
Experian Hitwise has also analyzed the top 1000 search terms for
20101 and Facebook was the top-searched term overall. This is the
second year that the social networking website has been the top
search term overall, accounting for 2.11 percent of all searches.
Four variations of the term "facebook" were among the top 10 terms
and accounted for 3.48 percent of searches overall.
The term "facebook login" moved up from the 9th spot in 2009 to the
second spot in 2010. YouTube was the third most-searched term in
2010, followed by craigslist, myspace and facebook.com. Analysis of
the search terms revealed that social networking-related terms
dominated the results, accounting for 4.18 percent of the top 50
searches, Experian Hitwise said.
When combined, common search terms - e.g., facebook and facebook.com
- for Facebook accounted for 3.48 percent of all searches in the US
among the top 50 terms, which represents a 207 percent increase
versus 2009. YouTube terms accounted for 1.12 percent, representing a
106 percent increase versus 2009. Aol search terms accounted for 0.34
percent of searches in 2010, but grew 22 percent versus 2009. Google
terms accounted for 0.63 percent, and Craigslist terms accounted for
0.62 percent.
New terms that entered into the top 50 search terms for 2010 included
- netflix, verizon wireless, espn, chase, pogo, tagged, wells fargo,
yellow pages, poptropica, games and hulu Experian Hitwise added.