Facebook crushes social network top 10 in 2012 Nielsen report

This week the folks at Nielsen have reported that their most recent findings in studying the web's usage of social networks has yielded one thing clearer than all else: Facebook takes the cake. They've made it clear that in addition to Facebook continuing to bash up the charts by a significant margin, we've spent 37% more time this year in the month of July on social networks than we did last year at the same time. In just one year, we've tacked on nearly 40% more minutes in a month with Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, and the like.

This study in 2012 shows the top 10 social networks to be Facebook, Blogger, Twitter, WordPress, and Linedin to start, with Facebook equalling nearly three times the amount of unique PC visits over its first competitor, Blogger. The list of 10 continues with Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr, MySpace, and Wikia, with each site from Linedin to Tumblr only having right around 1,000,000 unique visitors different between the two – but again, this is all via the PC market, people working from their desktop.

As for visitors from these social networks via their mobile browser presence, there's a bit different story. Facebook remains in the lead, while Twitter takes over Blogger and Pinterest jumps 2 places to sit in a clear fourth. WordPress is the last of the top 5 with Linedin being the first with numbers under 10 million, it and Tumblr coming up short by less than 2 million each. The bottom three then are Wikia, Reddit, and MySpace – Reddit's growth is notable at 153% over what it was a year before, the same for Tumblr at 162% over last year. Pinterest deserves the biggest applause in this category with a massive 4,225% growth rate year over year in the mobile app segment.

As for mobile users using apps, we've got a top 5 starting with Facebook and moving on the Twitter, then foursquare, Google+, and Pinterest. This chart shows that not only is Pinterest taking off like a rocket – winning the most improved in each category far and away, the whole mobile social network family is growing at a surprisingly fast rate. Have another peek at this study from a different perspective from earlier today.

[via Nielsen]