An important thing to remember is that this doesn't count searches made from other apps. Chrome and Firefox both have dedicated search boxes, meaning a visit to the actual google.com page is unnecessary. If each of those searches were included, the number would likely be much, much higher.

And another important thing to remember is that Google and Facebook aren't competing. Google is mainly a search engine. Nobody goes to Facebook to search the web. They go to stalk friends and play that stupid farming game. The only real problem this is for Google is the allure Facebook now has for advertisers. Once Google releases a beefed up version of Buzz with more Facebooky features, I bet it will take off a lot better than Buzz did originally.

It's like comparing apples and oranges – completely different types of web services. Of course for marketoid types those numbers might be the sign of something along the lines "Facebook is overtaking Google", but reality is different.

Agreeing with Marcin 100%

It seems that HitWise compares the traffic for www.google.com/* with the traffic for www.facebook.com/*. Most Facebook pages have addresses that match that pattern, but www.google.com/* is limited to Google Search, Product Search, Google Finance, Google Reader and a small number of other services.

And does not include Youtube, Google Apps (I access Google through my own domain name), Orkut and a few other things.

Is Hitwise's analysis based on actual figures (and, if so, measured how?); projection on comparatively small samples (how small?); and/or some statistical predictions anchored in trends comparison and similar statistical mumbo-jumbo? (Perhaps the answers are to be found in the linked article, but the day only has so many hours....)

ianf: Here's Hitwise's description of how they get their figures:
http://www.hitwise.com/us/about-us/how-we-do-it

It seems that they pay ISPs to snoop on the traffic that goes through their pipes.

What's their revenue for last year? Did they make any?

A good change from yearsof Google's stronghold as the most popular site. While it might not really matter much [ especially because Google is accessible in more than a million ways other than its main page], it is a nice piece of news to hear... and spread!

But if Hitwise's analysis involves collecting information from ISPs, I think [ guess] that it would include all means of access to a domain, won't it ?

Hi, I think Hitwise are saying, very clearly, that facebook.com overtook Google.com in terms of visits. It's not complicated, it's simple and you guys should know.

You just cant accept another property overtook you?

The original post is biased too. Hitwise are no dummies, they know what 'visits' are and how to measure them.

glad to know that facebook overtake google search