dan9999
03-17-2010, 12:30 PM
Facebook Beats Google for First Time
Times of London
March 17, 2010
Facebook has become the most visited Web site in the United States as millions of people turn to the social networking site to play online games.
The social networking site has seen phenomenal growth around the world and for the first time surpassed Google.com for a whole week in the U.S. last week, according to the web analytics firm Hitwise.
The milestone indicates how important a gateway to the web social networks, in particular Facebook, are becoming.
Facebook has more than 400 million regular users worldwide, about half of whom visit the site every day to check their updates, post photos and, increasingly, play online social games.
The growing popularity of simple games such as FarmVille, which has more than 83 million players worldwide, has breathed added life into social networks and hold out the prospect of huge profits for Facebook and companies such as Zynga and Playfish as gamers use real money to buy virtual goods inside the games.
Google reacted to the threat of Facebook by launching its own social network within its Gmail service last month. But Google Buzz has got to a rocky start as users complained about privacy concerns.
Google's earlier attempt in 2004 at a social network called Orkut has only ever been really popular in Brazil.
Hitwise said that the market share of visits to Facebook.com increased 185 percent last week as compared with the same week in 2009, while visits to Google.com increased 9 percent during the same timeframe.
Times of London
March 17, 2010
Facebook has become the most visited Web site in the United States as millions of people turn to the social networking site to play online games.
The social networking site has seen phenomenal growth around the world and for the first time surpassed Google.com for a whole week in the U.S. last week, according to the web analytics firm Hitwise.
The milestone indicates how important a gateway to the web social networks, in particular Facebook, are becoming.
Facebook has more than 400 million regular users worldwide, about half of whom visit the site every day to check their updates, post photos and, increasingly, play online social games.
The growing popularity of simple games such as FarmVille, which has more than 83 million players worldwide, has breathed added life into social networks and hold out the prospect of huge profits for Facebook and companies such as Zynga and Playfish as gamers use real money to buy virtual goods inside the games.
Google reacted to the threat of Facebook by launching its own social network within its Gmail service last month. But Google Buzz has got to a rocky start as users complained about privacy concerns.
Google's earlier attempt in 2004 at a social network called Orkut has only ever been really popular in Brazil.
Hitwise said that the market share of visits to Facebook.com increased 185 percent last week as compared with the same week in 2009, while visits to Google.com increased 9 percent during the same timeframe.