30 December 2009 | Author: D. Warburton Search Copywriter

Facebook is most visited website this Christmas

Facebook has overtaken Google as the most visited website on Christmas Day in the United States, as more users logged on to send season's greetings, share photos, arrange social events and exchange virtual gifts.

The social networking site placed second to Google last Christmas, but this year an ever increasing number of users has seen Facebook succeed in trumping the Mountain View giant and taking pole position as the most visited website on the big day.

This trend did not migrate across the pond however, with The Telegraph reporting that Google retained its lead in the UK.

Facebook's continuing popularity despite recent controversy over its privacy settings is good news for the site. Earlier this month, Hitwise reported that Facebook was the top search term for 2009 among US users, while Google's annual zeitgeist also revealed that Facebook was the top search term in the UK by Google users.

Despite holding on to its title as the UK's Christmas number one, Google may still be overtaken by Facebook if the social networking site continues to expand. It was previously revealed that Facebook accounted for one in seven UK page views in the month of September, making it second in popularity only to Google's dominant search engine - though Facebook users tended to visit more pages while on the website in total.