Facebook overtakes MSN as the second most popular web site in UK

SOCIAL NETWORKING WEB SITE Facebook has overtaken Microsoft's MSN as the second most popular web site in the UK, according to figures from the market research firm Nielsen.

In May MSN, which includes the web portal along with Windows Live and Bing, saw 26.242 million unique users, a slight dip since late last year.

Facebook, on the other hand, has grown its unique user base to 26.758 million, surpassing Microsoft's web dominion in the UK for the first time.

Both companies pale in comparison with Google, which saw 33.865 million unique visits in May, although that figure has been mostly level over the past year compared to the rises and falls of Microsoft and the slow, steady rise of Facebook.

These figures contradict the recent findings of Inside Facebook, which reported that the UK, like many other countries across the world, had lost at least 100,000 users. While it's growth is not phenomenal, there still appear to be more people joining the network across Britain every day.

The rival social network Twitter also saw a huge increase in its following in May, up to 6.14 million, a massive 34 per cent increase on the previous month. This largely boiled down to the infamous Twitter superinjunction relating to footballer Ryan Giggs, with older generations contributing the most to the increase.

There was a huge 65 per cent increase in men between the ages of 50 and 64 using Twitter last month, and an even bigger increase of 96 per cent for women over 65, showing that there is a lot of attraction in social notworking for the silver surfers out there.

The huge growth of Twitter is significant, as it vastly outstrips that of its rivals. It has less than a quarter of the userbase than Facebook, which is likely to be a major reason for its higher growth, as there are simply more potential customers out there.

If its growth continues at this rate, while Facebook grows slowly or not at all, then it won't be long before Twitter reaches up to steal its crown. This seems unlikely, however, as Twitter has a much narrower appeal than Facebook since it lacks the features and games that make Facebook the dominant player for now. µ