According to data from analysis and intelligence firm Hitwise, Facebook's year-over-year growth has been phenomenal. We reported in June that the social network was set to eclipse Google in web traffic; now, Hitwise is showing that in the past week, Facebook.com saw 3% more web visits and almost five times more pageviews than Google.com.
By these metrics, Facebook is by far the single most popular website in the United States. Still, other sources with other measurements and criteria show some variance.
comScore has also released stats showing huge growth from Facebook -- a 55% year-over-year increase, in fact. But comScore places Facebook at 151.13 million U.S. uniques for October 2010, slightly behind Google's 173.3 monthly uniques, which means the search giant is the social network's sole competitor for web traffic domination.
The company has been growing at a breakneck pace all year. It announced that its network had reached the extraordinary milestone of 500 million members in July. And at Web. 2.0 Summit this week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the audience that half of those members visit Facebook on a daily basis.
And the company's not just racking up new members and pageviews; a large part of its success has been a continuous stream of new and revamped products. Facebook Places was one of the most talked-about new locations products in an already crowded market; Facebook also made waves with a new Messages experience and interface and the new Groups, which Zuckerberg said is the company's fastest-growing product yet.