Facebook claims biggest chunk of biz Web traffic

What sites are eating up most of your company’s bandwidth? Hint: They’re not work-related.

More Internet traffic from work computers goes to Facebook than any other site, according to a recent report by security firm Network Box.

Analysis of 13 billion URLs used by businesses in the first quarter of 2010 showed that 6.8% of all business Web traffic goes to the popular social networking site — that’s up 1% from the last quarter of 2009.

The top five sites visited by businesses this past quarter:

  1. Facebook – 6.8% of all traffic
  2. Google – 3.4%
  3. Yimg (Yahoo!’s image server) – 2.8%
  4. Yahoo! – 2.4%
  5. Doubleclick – 1.7%

As far as total bandwidth (rather than number of visits), YouTube was the biggest drain on company resources, claiming 10% of all businesses’ bandwidth — though Facebook did manage to come in second, with 4.5%.

While managers may have concerns about employees wasting their time at work, IT’s likely more worried about non-work sites taking up valuable resources. Has your company taken any steps to make sure your bandwidth’s used only for work purposes?

Let us know what you’ve done by leaving a comment below.

Make Smarter Tech Decisions

Get the latest IT news, trends, and insights - delivered weekly.

Privacy Policy

Related Posts

  • http://www.donallenagency.com Amber Amber B-Bamber

    I believe our IT manager had to block a dating website for one employee who was on it during the day. I think she has not blocked Facebook yet because she checks it herself 1-2X/day, but that may change…

  • Andy

    Alot of the bandwith at the company I work for is being used up by internet radio and youtube. Facebook is also an issue. At the moment we have a Barracuda web filter in place, but has not been set to restrict anyone until it becomes a serious issue.

  • Dan

    I block all of the sites listed including a lot of video feeds and Internet radio. If I did not it would negatively impact our business systems. I do this at the main site (hub). I am less concerned with the smaller satellite offices.

  • Ben Boyack

    I block streaming sites such as radio, music, and video, from time to time, but everyone complains including the company president.