Social networks now receive more UK internet visits than search engines

During May 2010, social networks accounted for 11.88% of UK Internet visits, whilst search engines accounted for 11.33%. May was the first ever month that social networks have been more popular than search engines in the UK, in terms of visits.

Facebook was the most popular social network, receiving 55% of all UK visits - almost three times as many as the next most popular social network, YouTube. Twitter is now the third most popular social network in the UK.

However, despite its popularity, Facebook doesn't yet dominate the UK social networking market to the extent that Google dominates the search market. Together www.google.co.uk and www.google.com accounted for nine in every 10 web searches carried out in the UK during May. Consequently, Google UK was the most visited website in the UK during May, accounting for 9.29% of all visits. Facebook was in second place, accounting for 7.04% of all UK Internet visits during the same month.