14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook is still growing, that's no surprise, and, while it may not be gobbling up new users like it used to, its steady growth seems poised to take it all the way up the top of the pile, to become the largest website on the planet, toppling Google.
On occasions and temporarily, Facebook is already bigger than Google, and has now become the second most visited website in the UK, passing Microsoft but still below Google sites.
According to the latest data from UKOM/Nielsen, Facebook had 26.8 million unique visitors in the UK in May. That was enough to bring it up to the second spot in the most popular websites top.
Microsoft sites - MSN, Windows Live, Bing and so on - amassed 26.2 million, enabling Facebook to claim the second spot. Still, Google sits comfortably at number one with 33.9 million visitors in the last month.
We've seen this kind of reports from time to time, Facebook shoots up to claim the number one spot on weekends, holidays and so on, both in the US and the UK. Overall, Facebook usage is on the rise, even in these countries where a large percentage of the internet population is already on the site.
It seems a question of 'when' rather than 'whether' for Facebook to overtake Google, unless the Mountain View company does something to change the tides, like launch an appealing social product - something, let's just say, improbable.
Or unless Facebook does something to sabotage itself, unlikely but, given Facebook stubborn streak of not listening to its users, or rather to its most vocal critics, something that could happen.
Some recent reports have shown that Facebook is losing users in its most entrenched and oldest markets, the US and the UK. However, Facebook was swift to criticize and disprove those reports, without offering any sort of proof though. Most likely, despite the minor and disputed hiccups, Facebook will eventually become the biggest website in the world.