French people spend about 50 hours each month on Internet. In July, 61% of them logged in at least once ; in other words, nearly 32 millions persons switched on their computer, launched Firefox (or Internet Explorer), then entered some address: so what do the people make on the Internet? With our TOP 10 of the most visited websites, discover the favourite e-destinations of French people !

1. Let’s say, most internet users must have Google as a homepage: the famous search engine takes the lion’s share in the two rankings used for this article: Alexa and Médiamétrie. Google adds regularly new services (mail, image gallery, maps, videos, translations, blog, internet browser…): it must be the reason of his success!
2. Windows Live and MSN take the second position: Microsoft’s portal gave himself a new look and added hordes of online services, in the same vein as Google: photo gallery, online storage, search engine, agenda, etc. We must admit, the services offered are endless!
3. Two Internet access providers (Orange and Free) go from one extreme to the other of the TOP 10: Orange for his comprehensive information portal, Free for the myriad of personal websites hosted under the name espacepersonnel.free.fr. Their position is varying: from the 3d to the 10th.
4. A well-known site: Skyrock and the 19 billions blogs (!) stay a reference in the blog world. Originating from a rap & R’n’B radio, the social network skyrock.com is so well-liked that a skyblog has become a synonym of blog for the French young.
5. Youtube still rules on the place of online videos. New features appear from time to time (subtitles, captions, Quick Capture). The number of views of a particular video attests his popularity.
   His competitor Dailymotion (a French company created in 2005) takes only the 11th position in Alexa’s ranking.
6. Search engine Yahoo keeps on struggling Google’s leadership by completing his offer with a diversified portal about information and services: cinema, horoscope, news, … A rich and colorful website, gathering many different services.
7. Facebook, the student-oriented social network got ranked 8th by Alexa. Among the favourite features: photos/links/videos sharing, bizarre or serious groups, applications , etc.
8. The Pages Jaunes (“Golden Pages”) search for you the address and telephone number of private companies. Since there isn’t really a competitor, it explains their 6th in Médiamétrie’s ranking.
9. L’Internaute (“the Internet User”) is often refered for his encyclopedia and content articles about pretty much everything: money, car, decoration, high tech, men/women relations, garden…
10. Mappy shows you the way in the whole world, in 7 languages.
11. Ebay allows you to make good deals with your used stuff. Nowadays more and more professionnals sell solely through this medium.
12. Wikifondation is a safe bet in the Internet. Besides Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia), side activities come to enchance the main project (Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikinews, etc.).

Sources:
Alexa (Top 100 Sites - France)
http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?cc=FR&ts_mode=country〈=none
Médiamétrie (Audience des sites en juillet 08)
http://www.mediametrie.fr/resultats.php?rubrique=net&resultat_id=585