Facebook tops Google as most visited website in 2010

A new report offers a glimpse into the what was on the minds of Internet users during 2010 and offers perspectives on changing trends.

Google may still reign as king of the search engines, but it’s no longer America’s most popular Internet destination. Facebook was the most visited Website in the U.S. during 2010, according to a new report by Experian Hitwise.

Facebook also retained its champion status in the field of popular search terms: “facebook” was the number one most searched term and “facebook login” placed second. Google, obviously, did not compete in this category.

Taking into account the four variations on “facebook” that appeared in the top ten most searched terms, Facebook searches accounted for 3.48 percent of all internet searches in 2010 — an increase of 207 percent from 2009.

Other terms in the top ten include “youtube,” “craigslist,” “myspace,” “ebay” and “yahoo.” Terms that appeared in the top 50 for the first time for 2010 include “espn,” “netflix,” “verizon wireless” and “hulu.” The term “games” also appeared in the top 50, one of the few general search terms to be mentioned in the report.

While Facebook was the most highly searched term in 2009 as well, 2010 is the first year where it has been ranked as the Internet’s most-visited website, accounting for 8.93 percent of all U.S. visits from January through November. Google came in second with 7.19 percent of all visits, followed by Yahoo Mail in third place (3.52 percent), Yahoo in fourth (3.30 percent), and You Tube in fifth (2.65 percent).

But as we know, in addition to being a search giant, Google wears many hats including that of an e-mail service, a blog host, and a cloud software provider. If all of its properties are taken into account, Google pulled in 9.85 percent of all U.S. website visits, beating out Facebook’s total.

Earlier in the year, ComScore declared Facebook’s popular supremacy over Google. And while Google and Facebook are not direct competitors strictly speaking, as they both continue to expand there’s bound to be an increase in competitive tension among the two Internet giants. We’ll see how that plays out in the New Year.