comScore: Facebook Takes Lead In Time Spent

comScore

  Facebook in August for the first time took the top spot among major sites with a total of 41.1 billion minutes, according to new data from comScore. Google was second with 39.8 billion minutes and Yahoo fell to third, with 37.7 billion. Furthermore, Yahoo's share of time spent in the third quarter dropped to an all-time low of 9.3%.

In a research note on the latest monthly traffic figures from comScore, Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney pointed out that Google said its number of global users crossed 1 billion for the first time last month. But Yahoo edged out Google in August to become the top site in monthly traffic, with 179 million unique visitors. Google had 178.8 million, followed by Microsoft with 165.3 million.

Facebook remained the fourth-ranked site, at 148 million, up from 145.5 million in July. Rising traffic combined with increasing time spent on the site bodes well for Facebook's efforts to monetize its vast inventory.

Nielsen last month released data showing Americans spend nearly a quarter (22.7%) of their time online on social networks, far more than any other category. If U.S. Internet time were condensed to one hour, more than 13 minutes would be dedicated to social networks.

Separately, Facebook Thursday said it was adding new metrics to help advertisers measure the social context of ads by tracking the proportion that include endorsements from friends on the social network. That means telling advertisers what percentage of their ads people "Liked" or used to engage with a Facebook Page, event or application.

Research from Nielsen earlier this year showed people are 68% more likely to remember an ad and twice as likely to remember what it said when they see a friend has interacted with the ad on Facebook. The company struck a deal with Nielsen last year to help provide data to marketers demonstrating that its display ads work.

Advertisers using Facebook's self-serve ad system will find the new social metrics on the Reports Tab in the Facebook Ads Manager. The tab will show the number of clicks, click through rate and percentage of impressions from ads with social endorsements.

To help bring more accountability to social media marketing, Buddy Media Wednesday announced a partnership with MarketShare Partners to develop analytics tying social marketing initiatives to tangible offline results like increased sales and profitability.

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