Inside the Web Habits of Twitter Users

Twitter users are most likely to head to Google or Facebook after tweeting, according to some new research released today.

The data, compiled by analysis firm Hitwise, looks at clickstream statistics to determine what Web sites are most frequently visited immediately after Twitter. The study used traffic from the month of February.

Google took the top post-Twitter spot, with 5.2 percent of the downstream traffic. Facebook closely followed at 5.11 percent. Here’s the rest of the top 20:

In general, Hitwise says social networks are the top post-Twitter destination, followed by search engines, then e-mail services, photography sites, and multimedia sites. Blogs and personal Web sites round out the list.

“It appears that Twitter is being used as a social network and means of distributing content,” Hitwise’s Heather Hopkins notes. “Twitter.com’s clickstream profile is much closer to a social network than to search engines or e-mail services.”

Twitter’s downstream stats make it fit the profile more of a blogging site than an e-mail or search site, Hopkins concludes.