MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Facebook beats Google as the most visited website in the US

Facebook has beaten Google to become the most visited website in the US for the first time. The social networking website knocked the search engine off the top spot for the week ending March 13, according to industry analysts Experian Hitwise.

Facebook.com received 7.07% of all internet traffic, edging ahead of Google.com which had 7.03%. It is the first time that Facebook has enjoyed a weekly lead over Google.

The site has previously seized the number one spot on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Day and the weekend March 6/7. Heather Dougherty, of Hitwise Intelligence, said Facebook has reached an “important milestone”.

In addition, Facebook has been growing at a much faster rate than its search engine rival.

The site's market share was up 185% for the week compared to a year earlier, while visits to Google.com increased just 9% during the same period. The figures have been taken by some to signal the transformation of the internet from a search-driven entity to a body of information which is marshalled by social networks.

However some have pointed out that the figures do not take account of searches made through the Google toolbar for internet browsers, which is increasingly popular. Nor do the Hitwise figures cover Google's services such as Gmail and Google Maps.

When all Google's properties, including the video sharing site YouTube, are taken into account, the company accounted for 11.03% of US website visits last week, compared to 10.98% for Yahoo properties and 7.07% for Facebook, the Financial Times reported.