Facebook Surpasses Google In US Says Hitwise

In what serves as the indication of ascending influence of online social networking on Americans, Facebook Inc. has edged Google out in terms of the number of page views during the last week in the US.

Internet metrics firm Hitwise revealed that the social networking tsar managed to outshine Google for the first time during the week ending on 13 March. 

While Facebook garnered 7.07 percent of the total web visits in the US, Google was marginally behind with 7.03 percent of the total page views for the week.

This was the first time the search engine behemoth was dethroned of its top position since the week ending on 15 September 2007. Incidentally, this has already happened during the Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the New Year’s Day, as well as the weekend of March 6 and 7.    

The market share of total number of visits to Facebook has increased by 185 percent as compared to the same period a year ago, whereas visits to the search engine giant’s site increased only by nine percent during the same time span, Hitwise noted.

Jointly, both Google and Facebook, accounted for more than 14 percent of the total page views share for the week in question; that one in every seven pages.