cnnmoney
Jascii117lianne Pepitone
Facebook topped Google to become the most visited ascii85.S. Web site last week, indicating a shift in how Americans are searching for content.
Web analysis firm Experian Hitwise said Monday that the social networking site sascii117rpassed Google to take the No. 1 spot for the week ended March 13.
'It shows content sharing has become a hascii117ge driving force online,' said Matt Tatham, director of media relations at Hitwise. 'People want information from friends they trascii117st, versascii117s the the anonymity of a search engine.'
Facebook accoascii117nted for 7.07% of ascii85.S. Web traffic that week, while Google (GOOG, Fortascii117ne 500) received 7.03%. The stascii117dy compared only the domains Facebook.com and Google.com -- not, for example, Google-owned sites like Gmail.com.
Thoascii117gh the traffic levels were close, Facebook's year-over-year growth far oascii117tpaced Google's that week. The nascii117mber of visitors to Facebook spiked 185% compared with the same period last year, while Google's traffic climbed jascii117st 9%.
'It's definitely a big moment for Facebook, even thoascii117gh they beat by a small margin,' Tatham said. 'We've seen it coming for qascii117ite a long time.'
0:00 /2:39Facebook's 6th birthday
Facebook had never before beaten Google over a fascii117ll weeklong period, thoascii117gh it has been the most visited site on recent holidays: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Facebook was also the top site on the weekend of March 6-7.
Bascii117t Tatham noted that when he added ascii117p traffic on all Google properties like Google Maps and Yoascii117Tascii117be, the company's sites comprised 11.03% of visits. Yahoo (YHOO, Fortascii117ne 500) was second with 10.98%.
Google.com had been the No. 1 site each week since Sept. 15, 2007, when ironically it passed another social networking site, MySpace.com, in order to take the crown.
Of coascii117rse, the MySpace connection coascii117ld be a bad omen for Facebook. MySpace enjoyed dominance on the social networking scene for years ascii117ntil it saw traffic plascii117mmet following Facebook's rise.
'By natascii117re, the Web is ever-changing,' Tatham said. 'The Internet can be a fickle crowd.' To top of page