The Web analysis firm Experian Hitwise’s Monday-released figures, which reveal that social networking site Facebook overtook the Internet search giant Google as the most visited US site during the week ending March 13, indicate a noticeable shift in the way Americans are searching for Web content.

Commenting on Facebook’s feat, the Hitwise director of media relations, Matt Tatham, said: “It shows content sharing has become a huge driving force online. People want information from friends they trust, versus the anonymity of a search engine.”

Statistically speaking, the Hitwise study – which chiefly compared only the domains Facebook. com and Google. com – revealed that while Facebook’s share of the US Web traffic for the week stood at 7.07 percent; Google’s share was marginally lower at 7.03 percent. However, the year-on-year growth for Facebook was a whopping 185 percent, as against Google’s 9 percent growth.

Noting that toppling Google for one full week was “a big moment” for Facebook, Tatham said that the achievement was apparently “coming for quite a long time” – with Facebook already having beaten Google on a few occasions including Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, and the March 6-7 weekend.

Tatham also noted that adding up traffic on all Google properties - like Google Maps and YouTube – the company’s Web traffic topped the charts with 11.03 percent visits; followed by Yahoo with 10.98 visits.