Facebook outshined Google by claiming maximum visits in the United States in 2010, research firm Experian Hitwise said.

According to figures released by Experian Hitwise, the most popular social network site accounted for 8.9 per cent of all visits in the United States between January and November 2010.

After remaining at the top spot for two consecutive years (2008 and 2009), Google. com slipped to second spot with around 7.2 per cent of all visits in the country. Facebook's move to the top position shows how swiftly the social networking site has grown in popularity within just six years from its launch. Currently, Facebook has more than half a billion users in the world.

News Corp's MySpace, which was at the top spot in 2007, slipped to 7th rank this year. YouTube, Craigslist, ebay, and Yahoo were also in the top ten searches.