Why Facebook Isn't the No. 1 Website—Yet

The fact that Facebook received more traffic than Google last week has been taken as a sign that the mantle of the top website has been passed to Zuckerberg and Co. Facebook, however, "has yet to pull ahead in any real sense," writes Jessi Hempel. In fact, it won the week in only one sense: more people typed "facebook.com" than "google.com" into their browsers.

"When’s the last time you plugged the entire URL into your browser?" asks Hempel at Fortune. Many users access Google from search bars instead. Nor do the numbers include all Google properties, including Gmail and YouTube. But there is one category where Facebook has Google undeniably beaten: growth. The site's popularity grew by 185% over the past year, while Google grew only 9%. If that keeps up, it's only a matter of time until Facebook truly does beat Google as the Internet's top site.
(More Google stories.)