The year on year growth has been truly staggering, with just 8% of Americans having a Facebook page in 2008, however that number has jumped by 43% in just three years to a whopping 51%.

The statistics come from the study, Dial 2011: Navigating Digital Platforms by Arbitron and Edison Research, which is due to be officially published next month. The report will shed some light on the reasons behind the phenomenal growth and rise in popularity of Facebook, and will especially focus upon how the social network has found favour amongst the 35 year old + age group in recent times.

Another area the study will look into is the frequency of which members use their accounts, and also the rise in use of Facebook on mobile phones and how this has affected usage figures.

The statistics have been collected using a relatively small sample size of just 2,020 Americans aged over 12 years of age. Worldwide, Facebook now boasts almost 600 million users.

Facebook knocked Google off the top spot last week to become the most visited site in the US in the last 7 days

Research company Hitwise has revealed that Facebook overtook Google and picked up the accolade of most visited website of the week in the US.

This is the first time Facebook have achieved this feat. According to the research from Hitwise, the week ending March 13^th saw Facebook account for 7.07% of the visits during that week in comparison to Google’s 7.03% share.

Facebook, which is now the world’s biggest social networking site, also had other good news to share. Figures revealed recently showed that the amount of visits to Facebook has tripled over the past 12 months, whereas Google has seen a 9% increase.

Since its formation back in 2004, Facebook has enjoyed healthy growth. However the recent surge in visits is likely to be down to some canny moves on behalf of the bosses at Facebook. Now it’s easier than ever for users to access their account, and with the development of mobile phone technology which allows members to use Facebook on the move, the social networking site is reaping the benefits.

Not ones to take defeat lying down, Google have swung into action and have also developed a social networking arm to work in conjunction with their Gmail service. The feature was launched last month and it allows users to upload photos, share comments, and access YouTube videos.