Facebook beats out Google and Yahoo in user minutes

by Steven Mostyn - Sep 10 2010, 05:39

It’s been another good week for Google. However, while the arrival of predictive search via Google Instant has probably helped bolster the Internet heavyweight’s dominance in the search market, today sees Facebook looming large to take the edge off Google’s shine.

According to the latest monthly figures from online research specialist comScore, Facebook surpassed Google in the U.S. market during the month of August where amassed user minutes are concerned.

Facebook users spent a total of 41.1 billion minutes perusing the world’s most popular social network last month, which equates to 9.9 percent of total online time. By comparison, Google users gathered 39.8 billion minutes across all of Google’s online services – including the likes of YouTube, Google Search and Gmail.

Yahoo rounds out the top-three online performers, thanks to a monthly minute count of 37.7 billion and a usage time slice of 9.1 percent, which equates to an all-time low for the Internet pioneer.

Facebook’s success is indicative of the network’s continuing popularity. For example, in August of 2009, Internet users spent less than five percent of their online time with Facebook and around 12 percent of their time with Yahoo.  

Despite Facebook’s ongoing momentum, the social network remains only the fourth largest site where traffic is concerned.

Yahoo led the way in August with 179 million unique visitors, followed by Google with 178.8 million and software titan Microsoft with 165.3 million. Facebook pulled in 148 million, a slight increase from the 145.5 million it racked up during July.

The latest numbers from comScore are estimates built on reports from two million online users around the world.

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