And Coming In Fourth Place Is...

I'm typically not a social network site kind of girl. I had to be bribed to get on Myspace and that high lasted only a couple of months. After a year or two of harassment from friends to join Facebook, I decided to join earlier this year and have been addicted since. Sometimes I can't start my morning unless I log on and post the typical "Good morning FB!" status update.

Facebook surpassed all my expectations. I was expecting another social site where pictures of naked women flashed on the screen asking me to add them as their friend. Or messages from chicks prostituting online, generically telling me how cute I am (go walk into traffic!).

To my surprise it was none of that.

In the 6 or so months I've been on Facebook I've managed to find or be found by 300+ people I've crossed paths with in my life in some way: grade school, neighbors, college, dates and or ex-boyfriends, enemies that turned into friends and even family members I haven't seen or talked to in years. Now it's clear why I've been able to connect with people I only hoped I would see again one day but knew that I wouldn't.

Today, it was reported that Facebook is now the fourth largest website in the world. Fourth place is nothing in any other circumstance but when you trail behind phenoms like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, you take that position with pride as if you just came in first or second (although it may be awhile before they snatch up that 2nd place spot.. the leading 3 have 240 and 500 million more monthly unique hits than Facebook). In the past year, it has grown 157% and in June alone it gained 24 million unique visitors worldwide.

Worldwide unique visitors (June, 2009). Source: comScore

1. Google Sites: 844 million
2. Microsoft Sites: 691 million
3. Yahoo! Sites: 581 million
4. Facebook: 340 million
5. Wikimedia Foundation sites: 303 million
6. AOL: 280 million
7. eBay: 233 million
8. CBS Interactive: 186 million
9. Amazon: 183 million
10. Ask Network: 174 million

If you looking for a way to reconnect with your past and keep up with your current, Facebook is the place!