Facebook was the top search term in 2010 for second straight year
Social network search term tops list for fifth straight year; Facebook top-visited Website for first year. New York, N.Y., Dec. 29, 2010 - Experian® Hitwise®, a part of Experian Marketing Services …
Context & Ripple Effects
Experian Hitwise has been charting Facebook's climb all year: a March report already called Facebook the most popular U.S. website, an April follow-up made it the most searched-on brand, and this year-end tally closes the loop with Facebook topping the overall search-term list for a second straight year and becoming the top-visited site outright. The Guardian had framed Facebook as 'so last year' back in December 2007, which makes the three-year reversal stark.
The story travelled widely — TechCrunch's same-day pickup led with the Google angle ('Facebook Overtakes Google To Become Most Visited Website In 2010'), turning a rankings release into a search-vs-social narrative. It lands alongside a confirmed ~$2 billion revenue run-rate for Facebook in 2010 and a rumored approach to 600 million active users.
First-order effects
- Facebook ends 2010 holding both Hitwise crowns — top search term and top-visited website — displacing Google from the traffic position it had defined the decade around.
- Advertisers and media planners lose their cleanest proxy for where attention starts online: when users type 'facebook' into a search box, branded-query volume stops measuring intent to leave and starts measuring habit.
Second-order effects
- Google and other portals face pressure to respond on social territory rather than defend the homepage, since Hitwise's data says the front door has moved.
- Measurement firms like Experian Hitwise gain outsized influence — their annual rankings are now headline news capable of reframing competitive positions, raising the stakes on methodology and panel representativeness.
Third-order effects
- If users navigate by typing a brand name into search instead of following links, the economics of discovery invert: destinations with habitual demand (Facebook) capture traffic without buying it, weakening search engines' tollbooth position over time.
- A sustained pattern of one social platform dominating entry points concentrates distribution power — and with it, scrutiny: the Wall Street Journal's late-2010 investigation into Facebook apps transmitting user data signals that scale now draws regulator-and-press attention as much as advertiser budgets.
The trend: Web navigation is shifting from search-engine mediation to habitual brand destinations, with Hitwise's annual rankings tracking Facebook's consolidation of the entry point.