Facebook #1 Site this Christmas

It’s official, according to Hitwise, Facebook was the number 1 visited site in the US this Christmas. 

The news comes as no surprise as Facebook has enjoyed tremendous growth in 2009 with more and more people joining the social networking site.  

A good chunk of the growth came  from 40 to 50 year olds who -despite privacy concerns- are joining Facebook in hoards to stay in touch with family and long lost friends.

This is a tremendous accomplishment for Facebook as last year it was at the bottom of the top 10 most searched for terms. This year it displaced MySpace as the number one most searched for phrase.   Here’s a comparison of the top 10 searches in 2008 and 2009:

This news is bound to give Google a wakeup call and will make 2010 an interesting year for acquisitions and product development. 

Earlier in the year Google launched Google Wave, an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration.   Could this be the Google’s challenge to Facebook?  Will Microsoft increase it’s stake in Facebook or even buy them out in 2010?  How will sites like Twitter fair in 2010? 

Regardless of what happens, one thing’s for sure, Facebook is here to stay.  Well Done Mr. Zuckerburg!