Facebook has overtaken Microsoft as the UK’s second most popular web site behind Google, according to figures revealed on Monday by online measurement body UKOM/Nielsen.

The social networking site recorded 26.8 million visits last month from people in the UK, many of them over the age of 50.

The number was high enough to propel Facebook above Microsoft's collective web brand, including MSN, Windows and Bing.

UKOM/Nielsen said that there had been a steady growth of older people using Facebook since 2009, with an 84 per cent increase of 50 to 64 year-olds and an 81 per cent increase in over-65s.

Full story: V3.co.uk