31 December 2008
As the Queen gave her annual Christmas speech, thousands of web users were logging on to Facebook, new research shows.
According to the internet service provider PlusNet, online activity on the social networking site began to rise between the hours of 14:00 and 15:00 GMT on December 25th. By 16:00 to 17:00 GMT it had risen by 25%.
Only Google beat Facebook to be crowned the most visited site by PlusNet users on Christmas Day. Also in the top ten were the BBC, Amazon, Apple iTunes, YouTube and eBay.
Neil Armstrong, Products Director at PlusNet, said: "The study is a good illustration of how the web is changing the face of the traditional Christmas as more people go online for their fun, information and entertainment."
He said that while social networking sites proved popular in the afternoon as broadband users logged on to contact friends and family, by the evening the focus had shifted to online shopping sites.
Separate research by monitoring company Hitwise revealed that one in every 22 website viewings in the UK on December 25th were for Facebook.
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