For the first time on a routine week, Facebook has outpaced Google to become the most visited site on the internet.

According to research from Hitwise, Google’s share is still growing, but at only a fraction of the pace of Facebook.

The market share of visits to Facebook.com increased 185% last week as compared to the same week in 2009, while visits to Google.com increased 9% during the same time frame.

Together Facebook.com and Google.com accounted for 14% of all US Internet visits last week.

So what does this mean for marketers? Well, it’s a slap across the face — any marketer that is advertising on Google should put their efforts into finding a good Facebook strategy stat.

[Via Hitwise]

EQUTE — There is an interesting post over at WebProNews that shows just how popular Facebook has become.

Data showing that 1 in 7 UK page views went to Facebook prompted marketing researcher Perry Drake to take a look at the US numbers, and it was pretty interesting, Facebook has actually outpaced Google in page views — by quite a large margin.

Drake’s research showed that 1 in 4 pages accessed in the US were Facebook, while only 1 in 12 were Google.

It shouldn’t really be a surprise, people like to socialize, but it’s amazing just how much we like to socialize.

So what does this mean? Well, it means that more advertisers are likely to gamble on Facebook ads and possibly cut their Google ad budgets. While it might lead to more visibility, advertisers should be wary about reallocating their money. Google (and Bing) is still the place people turn to most when they are looking to buy something, research something and click on ads.

Drake postulates that Facebook could become a big information player, but notes that it’s not there yet.

Facebook has the potential to become a major search portal and source of relevant and timely information. Of course this is assuming that Facebook has the appropriate tools and people in place to mine that data and make it useful. But of course that is a topic for a future discussion.

They are certainly interesting numbers, and maybe a little more, but it’s more a topic for the water cooler, not one that should drastically change advertising budgets or strategies.

EQUTE — In its continuing efforts to become an advertising powerhouse, Facebook announced a partnership with Nielson to further examine how social media marketing works.

“Nielsen is the leader in measurement and is an excellent partner for us as we look to provide marketers with richer ad effectiveness data,” said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. “The combination of our unique ability to quickly and effectively poll a sample of our more than 300 million users and Nielsen’s expertise in data analysis will give marketers access to powerful data they can use to understand and improve current and future campaigns.”

Powerful data indeed, tapping into a 300 million internet-savvy users in a real time environment could give radically new insight into what people want and are willing to do.

The partnership is manifested as Nielson Brandlift, a straightforward poll on users’ Facebook homepage in place of advertisements. Nielson hopes that the tool will be a better measure of internet users than typical means of research.

“Facebook is an increasingly vital link between consumers and brands,” said John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen’s online division. “We will now be able to add deep knowledge of this important social network to our unmatched media measurement and consumer insight across all three screens. Together we will be able to provide the missing elements to clients seeking better understanding of how Web content and online advertising affect consumer behavior.”

Whether or not the majority of Facebook users will participate in the surveys remains to be seen. But as BrandLift rolls out in the next few months, advertisers should keep a close eye on Nielson for new announcements and data.

EQUTE — The experiment that sought to connect Facebook user’s daily activities directly to marketing failed in spectacular fashion — forcing the social network to cough up $9.5 million to promote Internet privacy.

When Facebook first unveiled Beacon, it looked like a harmless way to turn friends into “trusted referrals” — linking them to their purchases, reviews, etc. Almost immediately, there was a slew of privacy complaints with some users even complaining that the service allowed people to see their gifts in the friend feed long before the holidays.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly apologized for it, and now the service is offline.

A 2008 lawsuit on behalf of 19 users against Facebook, as well as Blockbuster Inc., Fandango, Overstock.com Inc. and other companies that used Beacon, led to the settlement. The suit claimed the defendants disclosed users’ personal information for advertising purposes, without their consent.

But the expensive experiment was not without merit, according to Facebook.

“We learned a great deal from the Beacon experience,” Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said in a statement. “For one, it was underscored how critical it is to provide extensive user control over how information is shared. We also learned how to effectively communicate changes that we make to the user experience.”

Out of the experience grew Facebook Connect, which lets Facebook users access other sites using their Facebook log-ins and share with Facebook information on activities elsewhere.

Unlike Beacon, however, Facebook Connect gives users, rather than Facebook and advertisers, control over the information they share.

EQUTE — Well it may sound like a sad story about an unpopular rich kid, businesses are actually buying friends on Facebook.

Australian company uSocial is selling several different packages for Facebook. You can pick up 1,000 buddies for a little under $200 and up to 10,000 for about 1,170. There is some skepticism about their tactics — and Facebook isn’t happy.

“All we do is send them a welcome message or friend request from the client. If they decide to go ahead and add that person as a friend or a fan then they will; if not, then they won’t,” Leon Hill, uSocial CEO said.

While his tactics might be questionable, Hill is right about Facebook.

“Facebook is an extremely effective marketing tool,” said Hill. “The simple fact is that with a large following on Facebook, you have an instant and targeted group of people you can contact and promote whatever it is you want to promote.”

And he says he’s right there to save your workday from Facebook.

“The only problem is that it can be extremely difficult to achieve such a following, which is where we come in,” said Hill.

It’s an interesting idea, and it might work at some level, but the key to Facebook (and any social network) marketing is building repair with customers. Those friends you buy for a couple hundred dollars don’t care what they are clicking on, and in a few days they will notice you in their friend feed and say farewell.

It’s a long road, but you’re probably spending a good chunk of the day on Facebook anyway, may as well spend it helping your company build its brand.