Social networking website Facebook has capped a year of phenomenal growth by overtaking Google's popularity among US internet users, with industry data showing it has scored more hits than the search engine.

经历了一年的强劲增长后，社交网站Facebook在美国互联网用户中的人气赶上了搜索引擎谷歌(Google)。行业数据显示，Facebook访问量超过了谷歌。

In a sign the web is becoming more sociable than searchable, research firm Hitwise said the two sites accounted for 14 per cent of all US internet visits last week. Facebook's home page recorded 7.07 per cent of traffic and Google's 7.03 per cent.

互联网研究公司Hitwise表示，上述两家网站占到了上周美国互联网访问总量的14%。Facebook主页占访问量的7.07%，谷歌则占7.03%，表明网络从“搜索”变得更为“社交”。

It is the first time Facebook has enjoyed a weekly lead over Google.

这是Facebook的每周访问量数据首次超过谷歌。

The lead may be slim, but it has become inevitable as Facebook's popularity has grown rapidly from just over two per cent of visits a year ago. Heather Dougherty of Hitwise said Facebook had “reached an important milestone” with the weekly figures. It had hit the daily number one spot onChristmas eve, Christmas day and New Year's day previously.

领先的幅度或许不值一提，但这成为了一种不可避免的趋势，因为Facebook的受欢迎程度迅速上升，一年前仅占美国互联网总访问量的2%多一点。Hitwise 的希瑟•多尔蒂(Heather Dougherty)表示，Facebook的每周数据“到了一个重要的里程碑”。此前该网站曾在圣诞前夜、圣诞日和元旦当天的日访问量上拔得头筹。

Facebook's rise had been impressive. Its membership has more than doubled in the past year, passing the 200m mark last April and 400m in February.

Facebook的崛起令人印象深刻。过去一年，该网站用户数量增长一倍以上，在去年4月和今年2月分别突破了2亿和4亿大关。

Google has responded to the ascendancy of the social networking site with introduction of its own Buzz service last month. Buzz allows users to add status updates, friends, pictures, videos, location information, comments and links to other networking sites.

针对这家社交网站的优势地位，谷歌上月推出了自身的Buzz服务，以此作为回应。Buzz允许用户添加状态更新、好友、照片、视频、方位信息、评论和通往其他社交网站的链接。

译者/怀川