Facebook Becomes Second Most Popular Site in U.K.

Facebook has overtaken Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Web sites in Britain for the first time, becoming the U.K.s second-most popular behind Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), according to Reuters, citing online measure group UKOM.

The social media behemoth landed a record 26.8 million visitors in Britain in May, up 7% from the year-earlier period, and outshining Microsoft, which recorded a combined 26.2 million visitors on its MSN, WindowsLive and Bing sites.

Google attracted 33.9 million visitors.

Social media sites in the U.K. have seen traffic soar as consumers over the age of 50 continue to jump on board. As Facebooks global growth slows among the younger crowd, its 50-plus age group in Britain accounted for more new adults visiting the site in the last two years than under 50s.

Twitters audience in the region climbed about 33% to 6.1 million last month, helped by a boost in Tweets regarding allegations of celebrity scandals.