"Social networking website Facebook has capped a year of phenomenal growth by overtaking Google’s popularity among US internet users, with industry data showing it has scored more hits than the search engine. In a sign the web is becoming more sociable than searchable, research firm Hitwise said the two sites accounted for 14 per cent of all US internet visits last week. Facebook’s home page recorded 7.07 per cent of traffic and Google’s 7.03 per cent. It is the first time Facebook has enjoyed a weekly lead over Google." - Frankie Warren

"The Hitwise figures only cover visits to the Google.com site, meaning that services such as Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps and searches carried out in a box in a browser toolbar are excluded." - Frankie Warren