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Facebook visits surpass Google, but what does it really mean?

March 19, 2010 |

Facebook.com overtook Google.com as the most visited domain in the U.S. last week, according to data from Experian Hitwise. Though those numbers are encouraging for Facebook, they bear little relevance to the relative health of the two companies' businesses, says ClickZ.

For example, Google has a number of properties and revenue streams besides its core search site located at Google.com, including services such as Gmail and its market-leading video site YouTube. According to Hitwise, YouTube itself racked up 2.14 percent of visits during that period, which when combined with traffic for Google.com would surpass Facebook.com's traffic by far, accounting for over 9 percent of all U.S. visits.

Perhaps more important, the data does not include traffic from search functions within browsers or toolbars, which accounts for a substantial portion of Google.com's search engine use. In addition, although Facebook.com remains the primary access point to the social network, use of its mobile site and Facebook connect interfaces is growing.

In terms of revenue implications, Google also has numerous revenue streams in addition to its search product, including its content and display advertising networks, cloud-based software services, and even mobile handsets.

Get the full story at ClickZ

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