A Very Merry Christmas for Facebook

Lesley Gross - January 5, 2010

According to a recent Hitwise tweet, something unprecedented happened on December 25th, 2009. For the first time ever, Facebook topped Google as the most visited site on Christmas day. While you can argue that this means nothing other than that people are spending more time uploading pictures and updating their status, and less time browsing or shopping online, it is still a testament to the power of the ever-growing giant that is Facebook. Hitwise also claims that the term “Facebook” was the most searched term on Google in 2009.

This yuletide news is a great distraction from Facebook’s recent negative headlines regarding their new privacy settings. Facebook users were concerned when, earlier this month, after logging in were directed to a “transition tool” asking them to review their personal settings. While Facebook assures their users that this only gives everyone more personal control, some argue that all these changes are an attempt to get more Facebook content in the search engines.

In the end, it doesn’t appear that these recent updates are enough to cause any affect on the site’s ever-growing appeal.