Facebook hits milestone, tops Google for a week

Computerworld - For the first time, Facebook replaced Google as the most visited Web site in the U.S. for a full week.

Facebook was the most-visited Web site in the country for the week ending March 13, said Hitwise, an online traffic monitor, in a report today. While Google has returned to the top spot, Matt Tatham, a Hitwise spokesman, said grabbing that position for a whole week was a major milestone for Facebook.

For the week that Facebook was No. 1, with 7.07% of all U.S. visits, Google was right behind the social networking site, with 7.03%, Hitwise noted. Rounding out the top five was Yahoo Mail, with 3.80%; Yahoo's main site, with 3.67%; and YouTube, with 2.14%.

"One reason for Facebook's success is the features that make it easy to share information and online content with friends," Tatham told Computerworld. "This content sharing is making it the first destination for people going online."

Google has long been firmly entrenched in the top spot. The search giant has been consistently the most-visited U.S. Web site since the week ending Sept. 15, 2007, when it surpassed the previous traffic leader, MySpace, according to Tatham.

Facebook has been making inroads, though.

Hitwise reported that Facebook outpaced Google this past Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. However, this month was the first time that the site held the top position for a full week.

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed . Her e-mail address is sgaudin@computerworld.com.

Read more about Networking in Computerworld's Networking Topic Center.