25/06/2009

Increases in traffic to social networking tool Twitter have made it the fastest growing website of the last 12 months, new research has revealed.

A study by online intelligence firm Hitwise revealed that in May 2009 Twitter ranked as the 39th most visited website in the UK compared to being the 969th most popular in May 2008.

Robin Goad, director of research at Hitwise, said: 'The noticeable thing about Twitter's growth is that the vast majority of it - 93 per cent in fact - has occurred during 2009.

'Media coverage of the site has escalated significantly this year and high profile celebrity endorsements, by everyone from Stephen Fry to Ashton Kutcher, have come rolling in.'

The research showed that Twitter has also become an important source of traffic for other websites.

In May 2009, the micro-blogging site was the 30th biggest source of visitors, accounting for one in every 350 website visits.

The Financial Times reported that Facebook is the most popular social networking website, having overtaken MySpace in 2008.