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Facebook Hits #1 on Christmas and New Year's Day
January 04, 2010
The main Google page has been ranked the most visited site on a daily basis for U.S. Internet users. That statement has held true for 364 days of 2009. Google's dominance of "all category" visits was disrupted when Facebook visits surged on Christmas Day. Facebook was able, albeit by a slighter margin, to recapture the #1 position on Friday, New Year's Day. Here's a chart showing market share of visits (U.S.) to the Two domains over the last two months.
Its interesting to note that Facebook's two #1 days both occurred on major holidays. Is there something about holidays that might cause social networking to trump search as the most popular online activity? One possible explanation might be that being home for the holidays might also mean being physically separated from one's social group, leading to greater virtual contact.
Another Interesting stat to close out 2009 is the most searched on terms across all major search engines in the U.S. for the year. Here's the list:
Top 10 Search Terms (U.S.) for 2009:
1. Facebook
2. MySpace
3. Craigslist
4. Youtube
5. Yahoo Mail
6. Google
7. Yahoo
8. eBay
9. Facebook login
10. Myspace.com
Source: Experian Hitwise
Along with its surge in visits, "Facebook" captured the #1 spot for most searched on term. In 2008 "MySpace" held the top spot, with Facebook in the #10 position. I still get a kick out of seeing "Google" in the search term list. Over the last four weeks 64% of "Google" searches were executed on Yahoo! Search and Bing, while 29% were executed on Google itself. I often wonder why anyone would Google "Google" on Google. I'm interested to hear your hypothesis.
Posted by Bill Tancer at 01:45 PM
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In Categories Google | Search | Social Networking
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- Facebook Beats Out Google Again, This Time on New Year's Day (Search Engine News)
After beating Google for most web visits on Christmas Day , Facebook once again whooped up on Google [Read More] - Hitwise: Facebook Beat Google On New Year's Day (News: Everything-e)
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Comments
Why would anyone Google "Google"?
It's easy to forget that Google is not just a verb for search, it's also a major company with a lot of popular products. Maybe someone wants to research on the company itself? Maybe someone wants to find information on the stock? Maybe someone wants to find one of their products for which don't know the exact name, i.e. Google Maps, or streetview?
As far as why someone would search for Google on another search engine, here is one possibility. I have a couple of software items that are updated frequently. Whenever I have to update, there is a prompt to add a Yahoo tool bar to my browser. I did this once as an experiment,but soon found that Google's search results were better. After doing a search on Yahoo, I would copy my search term, then enter google into the search box to do a search on google, then paste my copied search term. Afer a while I simply uninstalled the yahoo browser toolbar.
Posted by David Lucas | January 4, 2010 02:42 PM
I bet people using Google toolbar search for 'google' at a higher rate than those searching from google's home page. People who use their toolbar's search box as a route TO google, not realizing it IS google? Just a guess.
Posted by Josh Fleischmann | January 4, 2010 04:50 PM
Good question! Sort of reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer dials the operator and excitedly says, "Get me the number for 911!"
Posted by BCY | January 4, 2010 06:36 PM
I was under the impression that if one Googled "Google" it would break the internets !
Posted by King Dumb | January 8, 2010 10:09 AM
I think the reason why more people visited Facebook on Christmas and New Year's is because people used their FB profiles to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to their friends.
One my google "Google" to do research on the company and is searching for news articles, etc.
Posted by Gina Cuclis | January 8, 2010 05:01 PM
Now Google is more than a brand, it is a brand mix, or even a group brand mix. A search for the term Google on Google reveals 2.09 billion entries.That shows the diversity in products and geographic spread Google has.That may also account for the popularity of the search term Google.
Shyam
www.twitter.com/shyam17
Posted by Shyamsunder Panchavati | January 10, 2010 05:03 AM
sometimes I Google Google just to see what Google thinks of Google and when you Google it you see many things. I wish there were a way where I could make the googled "Google" search in Google be my main page when i type in Google.com. lol the new tongue twister will be Google related
Posted by fatstarr | January 11, 2010 03:56 PM
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re: "google" my first question would be is that is an exact match term? If you were grouping the query into broad match cases like "google maps" etc. that begins to make much more sense.
My second question as it relates to any match type is what percentage of the queries were via Google distributed search e.g. toolbars, Firefox, etc or Google search appliance. Those instances would make more sense for a navigational query. Do you record those as google executed searches or is it domain specific?
Posted by Jonathan Mendez | January 4, 2010 02:37 PM