Facebook, with its 500 million active users and (unofficial) movie and books, is also quite the hit with small businesses, according to a new report. MerchantCircle found that Facebook is the favorite online marketing service of small businesses, and Facebook Places is doing quite well, too. To sort of set the stage: the Merchant Confidence Index survey involved 8,456 U.S. local business owners, and was conducted between January 22nd and February 3rd. So the results aren't especially subjective or dated.