Google on Friday released web traffic data indicating that Facebook is king when it comes to online visitors despite criticism about privacy at the social-networking service.
Facebook.com is visited monthly by 540 million people, or slightly more than 35 per cent of the Internet population, according to Google Ad Planner worldwide data gathered using recently-acquired Double Click.
Approximately 570 billion pages are viewed monthly at Facebook.com, more than eight times as many pages as are viewed each month at second-place Yahoo.com which gets 490 million visitors, according to Google.
The figures support word from Facebook that it has not been abandoned by members despite carping by politicians, consumer groups and privacy advocates that want tighter safeguards on personal information at the website.
Facebook is overhauling privacy controls in the face of a barrage of criticism that it is betraying the trust which has made it the world's biggest social network.
Facebook redesigned its privacy settings page to provide a single control for content and “significantly reduce” the amount of information that is always visible to everyone.
Facebook also said it is giving users more control over how outside applications or websites access information at the service.
The revamped privacy controls began rolling out on Wednesday.
