Google earns top spot in Nielsen's Tops of 2011

Google narrowly edged out Facebook as the top Internet destination for US web surfers in 2011. The data was compiled by market researcher Nielsen as part of their Tops of 2011: Digital series that also includes the top social media sites, video destinations and smartphone devices.

Google recorded an average of 153.4 million unique visitors each month in 2011, just ahead of Facebook with 137.6 million monthly unique. Yahoo, MSN / Windows Live / Bing and YouTube rounded out the top five with 130.1 million, 115.8 million and 106.6 million visitors, respectively. Data was collected from January through October 2011 on home and work computers.

Facebook earned the top spot as the most popular social network / blog by a landslide at 137.6 million average monthly unique visitors. Blogger ranked second at 45.7 million followed by Twitter, WordPress and Myspace with 23.5 million, 20.3 million and 17.9 million each. The same set of data and collection process was used to record these stats.

YouTube outpaced all other contenders as the most popular destination for online videos with 111.1 million monthly visitors. VEVO ranked second with 34.5 million uniques followed by Facebook with 29.8 million. Hulu came in seventh place with 13.1 million unique and Netflix ranked 10th with only 7.4 million.

Apple ranked first in the smartphone manufacturers list with a 29 percent market share. HTC earned the silver medal with a 21 percent share followed by RIM at 17 percent. Samsung and Motorola both held an 11 percent market share during the data collection timeframe of August to October 2011.

Nielsen survey reveals habits of Netflix and Hulu customers

Watching directly on a computer is the most popular method that customers use each service, with 42 percent of Netflix users and 89 percent of Hulu subscribers falling in this group. Game consoles are also very popular with video streamers. Half of all Netflix users in the study log in using a Wii, PS3 or Xbox. Only three percent of subscribers use a mobile phone or iPad to watch programming. Users were allowed to choose multiple viewing methods to best reflect their watching habits.

Even more interesting is the type of content that respondents are viewing from each site. According to the survey, over 50 percent of Netflix customers use the service strictly for watching movies, while only 11 percent of those questioned watch television shows exclusively. This is in stark contrast to Hulu users, where the majority polled, a staggering 73 percent, only use the service for television shows.

Do you subscribe to either of these online streaming services? If so, does this data accurately reflect your watching habits?