January's web: Facebook and peanut butter

Facebook continues its relentless march, cracking the top 10 most visited sites in January
Facebook continues its relentless march, cracking the top 10 most visited sites in January

Facebook cracked the top ten of most visited websites in America for the first time in January, according to figures from web watchers comScore Inc.

Other big gainers were US government websites dealing with tax advice and the outbreak of salmonella in peanut butter that has sickened hundreds and killed at least eight people nationwide.

Google Sites continued to lead as the most visited property in January with 151 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! (146 million) and Microsoft (126 million) sites.

Facebook climbed one spot to capture the the number ten position with 57 million visitors, marking the first time in its history that the social networking site has breached the Top 10.

Let's get out of here!

Several travel categories witnessed strong gains in January as Americans looked for winter travel deals.

Visits to cruise ship sites jumped 46 per cent to 13 million visitors, while the hotel/resort category grew 12 per cent to 30 million visitors, led by Disney Travel with nearly 5 million visitors.

When it comes to advertising, AOL's Platform A ads bothered the most people, reaching 91 per cent of America's 192 million web surfers last month, closely followed by the Yahoo! network with 86 per cent.

Mark Harris is Senior Research Director at Gartner.