Web search and emails most popular activities
Good news for Google, Yahoo, MSN, and maybe even Cuil – search engine use is on the rise, according to a report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. While it may seem like everyone has Googled themselves, Twittered some inane tidbit about their day, or shared a little too much via Facebook status updates, some people apparently only use the Internet to send useless forwards and check the weather. The ranks of the Internet illiterate are dwindling, however. The number of people who regularly use online search engines is up 69 percent from January 2002, the report said. E-mail use increased about 15 percent in the same time period, but e-mail has always been the most popular app on the Internet, wrote report author Deborah Fallows.
Among daily Internet activities, 60 percent use e-mail, 49 percent use online search, 39 percent check news, 30 percent check weather, 29 percent research a hobby, 28 percent surf the Web for fun, and 13 percent use social networking sites. This is the second time Pew has seen a jump in search engine use – the first being a 10 percent increase in late 2005 when there was a lot of media buzz around search engines, including the Google IPO. What accounts for the jump this time around? Fallows suggested that at this point, Internet users can find a high-performing, site-specific search engine on any Web site “that is worth its salt.” Increased access to broadband and the quality of search returns has also contributed to the rise in use, she wrote.
Source: PC Magazine
Comments(15)
What % is file sharers?
I read somewhere ages ago it was 1/3 of the internet!
As the MPAA and RIAA are well aware, 100% of the interwebs are used for piracy.
SHAME!
what a pointless article. your telling me that you didn’t already think web search and emailing were the top web activities?
You know if 49% of the activity is search engine then what is being searched for?
Made up statistics, I guess =]
Anyway, I wouldn’t include Cuil in the search engines listing yet – they’ve got serious problems with character encoding for searches and hell lotta of spam results. Nope, they need better ranking system and spam filter.
I am using instant messaging and Skype much more than email now.
Well they say that emails are the most popular activity on the internet, but are they taking spam into consideration? I read somewhere that around 95% of emails are spam emails, and so without those, just how much of the internet traffic would be due to email?
My 4-year old Gmail account has only used about 600Mb total since the day I started using it. By downloading just one film, you’ve already spent more bandwidth on the film than on 4 year’s worth of emails…
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now that people can google they need to learn rtfm…i doubt 1% of the intertubes know how to do it
funny yeah it’s actually probably like 1/3rd file sharing, because 1/3rd is news reading and alternate media such as 9/11 truth movement etc, i’m assuming other 1/3rd is porn! But it’s good porn has decreased somewhat.. used to be more like 75% of traffic.
i mostly download fonts. i have, like, at least a billion. prolly more.
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What!? Porn no longer is the top thing to watch on the internet? Looks like times have changed
Nothing to do with eggs!
Erm, what about pr0n?