“Facebook” Top-Searched Term for 2011

December 27, 2011

experian-hitwise-2011-top-terms.jpg“Facebook” was the top-searched term in the US in 2011, accounting for 3.1% of all searches, representing a 46% increase from 2010, when it was also the top-searched term, according to an analysis of the year’s top 1000 search terms by Experian Hitwise. Four variations of the popular social networking site were among the top 10 terms, accounting for 4.4% of searches overall, a 24% increase from 2010. This year marks the sixth straight year that a social network search term has topped the list.

YouTube Takes Second Position

Among the top 10 terms, “youtube” moved up from the third spot in 2010 to the second spot in 2011. YouTube terms accounted for almost 1.4% of all searches in the US among top 50 terms, representing a 21% increase from 2010.”Facebook login” was the third most-searched term in 2011, while “facebook.com” moved up a spot in 2011 to be among the top 5 search terms. Analysis of the search terms reveals that social networking-related terms dominated the results, accounting for about 4.2% of the top 50 searches, an increase of 12% compared to last year. When combined, the common search terms for Facebook, such as “facebook” and “facebook.com,” accounted for roughly 3.5% of all searches in the US among the top 50 search terms, representing a 33% increase from 2010.

Google terms (including YouTube) accounted for just under 1.6% of the top 50 searches, up 27% from 2010, while Yahoo terms accounted for roughly 0.6%, up 15% from last year. New terms entering the top 50 search terms for 2011 included “addicting games,” “amazon.com,” “cnn,” “chase online,” “hotmail,” “lowes,” “pandora,” “twitter,” and “you.” Hitwise found an 11% increase in single-word searches in 2011.

Facebook Visits Beat Google, Again

experian-hitwise-2011-top-sites.pngFor the second year running, Facebook was the top-visited website, accounting for 10.3% of all US visits between January and November 2011, representing an increase of 15% from 2010. Google ranked second, with 7.7% share of visits, up 7% from 2010. However, the combination of Google properties accounted for 12% of all US visits, a 22% increase compared to 2010, ahead of Facebook properties (8.9%) and Yahoo! properties (6.8%). According to comScore’s November Media Matrix, Google Sites ranked as the #1 property with 186.7 million visitors, while Facebook.com took the fourth spot for the month with 166 million visitors.

Meanwhile, Experian’s analysis shows YouTube (3.2%), Yahoo! Mail (2.95%), and Yahoo! (2.5%) following Facebook and Google as the top-visited websites. The top 10 websites accounted for 32% of all US visits between January and November 2011, remaining flat compared to 2010.

According to December analysis from Compete, the top 10 domains by page views accounted for 34% of total page views in September 2011, representing an 11% decrease from 40% in September 2006. However, the share of total page views held by the top 10 domains was only 31% in September 2001, meaning that page view concentration has risen almost 10% in the past decade.

Reality, Soaps Lead TV Searches

“American Idol” was the top TV show searched in 2011, with “Dancing with the Stars” coming in fourth. Soaps also took 2 of the top 5 spots: “Young and the Restless” was the second-most searched TV show, and “Days of our Lives” was fifth. “Dora the Explorer” was the third-most searched TV show of the year.

Meanwhile, the top generic search term within the TV category was “hulu.”

Other Findings:

  • The top searched-for athletes were Tiger Woods, Danica Patrick, and Brett Favre. The top searched-for sports team was the Dallas Cowboys.
  • The top-searched person among News and Media sites was Casey Anthony, followed by Charlie Sheen and Kim Kardashian.
  • The top searched-for artists/bands were Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. Justin Bieber was the 92nd most-popular overall search term in the US in 2011, and the top among public figure searches.
  • Disney World, Disneyland, and Walt Disney World took the number 1, 2, and 4 spots respectively among branded destinations.

About the Data: Experian’s data is based on the top 500 unfiltered US search terms and US market share of visits for January to November 2011. The data does not include mobile searches or traffic.

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