Facebook’s usage soars

Facebook UK had its busiest day ever on Sunday in terms of traffic after launching its new personalised username capability.

The social networking site’s usage went through the roof, pushing it up to second place behind Google UK, after picking up one in every 19 internet visits in the UK, according to Robin Goad at Hitwise Intelligence.

Facebook’s traffic was up by 9.5% compared to the previous Sunday, June 7.

Its boost in traffic also accounted for around 43% of all online visits to a social networking site over the course of the day, more than two times as many as YouTube.

Facebook is understood to of started accepting registrations of personalised URLs on June 13, enabling users to link their profiles on the website with the web addresses containing usernames of their choice, along with the standard numbers-based URL.

The network said that around 500,000 users had registered a personalised URL within 15 minutes of the introduction of the feature, climbing up to one million within an hour and reaching up to an impressive three million in 12 hours.

A Facebook spokesperson said: “It’s rewarding to see so many people are interested in getting a user name.”