Experian Hitwise, one of the reputable online researchers of the web, has released its own version of yearly review of the most popular search terms and most visited websites in the U.S. for 2011. As it appears from the report, the big winner for 2011 was (once again) the social network giant, Facebook.

Top U.S. Search Terms For 2011

For the third year in a row, “Facebook” was the most popular search query in the U.S. responsible for 3.1% of all searches, a jump of 46% in volume compared to 2010. In addition, 3 more Facebook-related search terms was among the top 10 search queries that overall was responsible for 4.42% of all searches, which represented 24% rise from last year.

These stats are reflecting the increasing popularity Facebook had in 2011 where its number of users has grown by 35%-40% from estimated 600 million users at the beginning of 2011 to more than 800 million at the end of the year. Facebook also benefited from the general social networking-related search queries 12% increase in 2011 compared to 2010.

“YouTube” was the second most popular search term this year, up from the third place in 2010, while it was responsible for 1.36% of all searches (21% increase from last year). Another winner seems to be Yahoo with an increase of 15% compared to 2010- The main search term “Yahoo” advanced two places to 6th while another Yahoo-related search term (“Yahoo.com”) landed in the 10th place.

The biggest loser from the top 10 search queries list is MySpace which held the fifth place in 2010 however vanished from the top 10 list in 2011, reflecting its steep decline in popularity and interest throughout the year.

Top U.S. Visited Websites For 2011

In the U.S. Facebook is the most popular site for the second year in a row, responsible for 10.3% of all visits, 15% increase from last year. Google.com is the second most popular responsible for 7.7% of all visits, 7% rise from last year. However, when combining all the companies web properties, Google is first with about 12% of all visits and Facebook is second with 8.93% (as also reflected in the top web brands report).

YouTube (Google’s property) jumped two places from the fifth place in 2010 to the third place in 2011 as it was responsible for 3.17% of all visits, passing Yahoo.com (2.47%) and Yahoo’s email service (2.95%). Another big jumper was Bing that progressed from the 10th place in 2010 to the 6th place in 2011. Overall, the share of the top 10 websites was 32% out of the total, the same share as in 2010.