Social network also is the most searched-for term of the year, says Hitwise
It looks like 2010 was indeed the year that Facebook’s success exploded.
For the first time ever, U.S. Web surfers visited the social networking site more than any other site in 2010, beating out Internet behemoth Google, according to a report from Hitwise, an Internet analytics firm.
Facebook, which had a flood of good and bad publicity last year, grabbed 8.93% of all U.S. visits between January and November 2010. Google, which had been in the top spot in 2009, slipped to the No. 2 position with 7.19% of all visits, Hitwise said.
The analytics firm also reported that Yahoo! Mail came ranked third with 3.52% of all visits, while the main Yahoo! site was fourth with 3.3%. YouTube rounded out the top five with 2.65% of all site visits.
Facebook had been creeping up on Google during the last several months.
While Google has long been at the top of the heap when it comes to grabbing the most visitors and time spent on a Web site Facebook began making its mark last summer. (more…)