Google, Facebook and YouTube are the top online destinationst among U.S. websites in 2011, according to new data from the research group Nielsen. Google was the most-visited U.S. Web brand, while Facebook held its lead among social networks and blogs. Smartphones were popular in 2011, making up the majority of new phone purchases with Apple as the top smartphone manufacturer and Android as the leading OS.

The Nielsen data cover the entire year, only January to October.

According to Nielsen, the top 10 U.S. social networks and blogs, by page views, in 2011 were:

1. Facebook -- 137.6 million average page views per month
2. Blogger -- 45.5 million average page views per month
3. Twitter.com -- 23.6 million average page views per month
4. WordPress.com -- 20.4 million average page views per month
5. Myspace.com -- 17.9 million average page views per month
6. LinkedIn -- 17 million average page views per month
7. Tumblr -- 10.9 million average page views per month
8. Google+ -- 8.2 million average page views per month
9. Yahoo! Pulse -- 8 million average page views per month
10. Six Apart/TypePad -- 7 million average page views per month

Nielsen also reported that the 10 most visited overall U.S. Web brands in 2011 were:

1. Google -- 153.4 million average page views per month
2. Facebook -- 137.6 million average page views per month
3. Yahoo! -- 130.1 million average page views per month
4. MSN/WindowsLive/Bing -- 115.9 million average page views per month
5. YouTube -- 106.7 million average page views per month
6. Microsoft -- 83.8 million average page views per month
7. AOL Media Network -- 74.6 million average page views per month
8. Wikipedia -- 62 million average page views per month
9. Apple -- 61.6 million average page views per month
10. Ask Search Network -- 60.5 million average page views per month

The top 10 U.S. Web brands for video, according to Nielsen's data:

1. YouTube -- 111.1 million average page views per month
2. Vevo -- 34.6 million average page views per month
3. Facebook -- 29.8 million average page views per month
4. Yahoo! -- 25.3 million average page views per month
5. MSN/WindowsLive/Bing -- 16.6 million average page views per month
6. AOL Media Network -- 13.3 million average page views per month
7. Hulu -- 13.1 million average page views per month
8. The CollegeHumor Network -- 12.5 million average page views per month
9. CNN Digital Network -- 8.3 million average page views per month
10. Netflix -- 7.4 million average page views per month