If you did a Web search in 2010, you were probably looking for Facebook, according to new data released by Experian Hitwise.
The report shows that between January and November of this year, a4‚¬Afacebooka4‚¬¯ was the most popular term entered into search engines in the United States. That was also true last year, so the more impressive shift is how Facebook-related terms (a4‚¬Afacebook logina4‚¬¯, a4‚¬Afacebook.coma4‚¬¯, and a4‚¬Awww.facebook.coma4‚¬¯) now make up four of the top 10 searches and accounted for 3.48 percent of all searches.
Given that dominance, ita4‚¬a4„s no surprise Facebook is now the most-visited website as well, passing Google and Yahoo Mail. An earlier report from comScore showed a similar trend in worldwide traffic.
Beyond being good news from Facebook, the data seems like another sign that people are using search as their default way to navigate the Web, even when it might seem easier to just type in a URL. I would imagine that many of the people who do a search for a4‚¬Afacebook.coma4‚¬¯ probably know what Facebooka4‚¬a4„s URL is, but they typed it into a search engine (or into the search box at the top of their browser) instead.
Herea4‚¬a4„s the list of 2010&'s top 10 search terms:
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Companies: Experian Hitwise, Facebook
Companies: Experian Hitwise, Facebook
Anthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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