Survey: Facebook Dominates Social Networking Market

New numbers show Facebook is dominating the social networking scene, while Twitter continues to be the biggest gainer among social media Web sites.

Facebook now claims nearly 59 percent of U.S. social media Web visits, according to Experian Hitwise. MySpace, which as recently as September 2008 claimed more than two-thirds of the traffic, now ranks a distant second, with just 30 percent of the market share. MySpace has fallen 55 percent over the past year, while Facebook is up nearly 200 percent.

Media darling Twitter has posted an amazing 1170 percent increase in traffic over the past year, but it might surprise you to learn that the company, valued by some at $1 billion, is still fourth, with less than 2 percent of social media traffic. Tagged ranks third.

Overall, social media surfing was up 62 percent in the past 12 months, with an increase of 77 percent from the 55-and-over age group.