28 June 2011 | Author: C. Tate

Facebook now No 2 website in the UK

Research by analysts UKOM/Nielsen placed Facebook as the No 2 most popular website in the UK, with 27 million visitors during May 2011.

This placed the social site ahead of MSN, including the Bing search engine and Windows Live. The Microsoft site received 26.2 million British visitors during the same time period, slipping from 27.3 million last May. Google continues to be the most popular site in the country.

Facebook, founded and headed by Mark Zuckerberg, now has approximately 750 million users globally, though this is not confirmed. However, it is expected to release an official figure soon, especially considering it announced passing the 500 million milestone last summer.

Ashley Highfield, Microsoft's UK managing director, said he was not worried by this news. He said that MSN was currently being reorganised after a period in which it had benefitted massively from being the landing page after logging out of Hotmail.

"I almost want our page views to drop," Highfield told the Telegraph, going on to say he was more interested in the period of time the user spent on the site and the repeat visits they could garner.

Microsoft's plan is to build a new audience for MSN, adding social features and new technology to the already existing editorial content. Highfield said he wants MSN to be a showcase for what can be done on the internet and on mobile platforms and that existing sites were not in danger of the axe.

UKOM/Nielsen based its findings on monitoring the online behaviour of 50,000 UK residents.

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