Facebook has overtaken Google to claim the place as the most visited website in the US.

According to the statistics from web analysis firm Hitwise, the social media giant whizzed past Google.com last week as millions of people turn to the site to play online games.

The Times Online states that the news represents a milestone and shows just how important gateways social networking sites have become.

Facebook has earlier claimed the US number one spot for single days at a time but last week was the most sustained lead for it.

In the UK, the social networking site has still some catching up to do as, according to The Times Online article, Google currently holds 9.34% of the web visits in the country against Facebook’s 6.01%.

Google has tried to tackle the growing popularity of social media by launching of its own social networking tool, Buzz, within the popular Gmail. However, the service hasn’t quite taken off the way the internet giant intended and has encountered, for example, privacy concern complaints from the users.

Source: The Times Online