Walkers is fastest growing website after Brit Trips promotion

Trovit, the classifieds site for jobs, cars and homes was the second fastest growing website. Its UK users jumped from 30,000 in June last year to 766,000 in June this year.

Shopping comparison site FindStuff was placed third with a growth of 1,443%.

Two other reward sites also made it into the top 10 fastest growing UK websites. These were MyVoucherCodes, which was placed fourth with a growth of 1,200% and Fair Exchange, which was placed seventh after increasing its UK users by 828%.

Alex Burmaster, internet analyst for Nielsen Online, said: "Sites tapping into consumer concerns about the economy, giving them the opportunity to save money, dominate the fastest growing list.

"Coupons and reward sites, classifieds and shopping comparison engines are obvious examples but Walkers Snack Foods is the fastest growing site of all due to their 'Brit Trips' promotion offering discounts on British holidays and trips around attractions, hotels and restaurants."

Google Maps was the fastest-growing website (57%) among the 10 most popular UK sites, followed by YouTube (52%) and Wikipedia (41%).

Microsoft's Hotmail, which is the ninth most popular UK website, lost 7% of its UK audience over the past year, while Microsoft's Windows Media Player dropped by 3%.

Burmaster said: "[Microsoft's] Windows Media Player and Hotmail properties have been casualties of the social media explosion -- consumers streaming video directly on sites instead of using media players and increasingly communicating via Facebook rather than email.

"[Its] messenger service has a smaller footprint -- reaching less of the overall internet population -- than it did a year ago, despite a slight upturn in audience."