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.

Google search engine offers a personalised homepage

British and American Google users can now set their own background to their iGoogle homepages. To do so, users must be registered with Google and then login to their account to adjust their iGoogle backgrounds.

You can choose a photo from your computer, your own Picasa Web Album or a public gallery hosted by Picasa which includes a selection of beautiful photos.

The feature was rolled out in the US last week and is being rolled out across the UK over the next few days. It can be identified by the presence of a link in the lower left-hand corner of Google's homepage.

Those Google visitors who do not want to personalise their homepage will not be forced to. To learn more go to Google.co.uk.