Facebook knocks Google off its Web throne

by Stevie Smith - Mar 16 2010, 06:00

Not that we’re suggesting Google’s online dominance is likely to diminish in the long term, but the search engine’s familiar position on the Web’s traffic throne has been usurped in March by the juggernaut that is Facebook.

Specifically, the Internet number crunchers over at Hitwise have indicated that uber-popular social network Facebook accounted for 7.07 percent of all U.S. online traffic during the week ending March 13, while Google trailed behind with 7.03 percent.

According to Hitwise research director Heather Dougherty, Facebook’s market share of visits increased by a whopping 185 percent over the last week when compared to the same week in 2009.

Google, although unable to hold off the onrushing social networking behemoth, also logged a modest nine percent year-on-year traffic increase.

Facebook’s surge and its subsequent stealing of top spot in the U.S. market marks the first time Google has been deposed since September of 2007 – at which time it fell to then-leading social network MySpace.

Facebook currently boasts more than 400 million users, around half of which visit their accounts on a daily basis, while the average Facebook user remains on-site for an hour over the course of a single day.

Around the Web