Emailing has traditionally been the internet’s strongest draw.
But according to a new report from the Pew Internet Project,
searching on the web is quickly closing in on email use as the
most popular activity among surfers – due in part to broadband
adoption. The study found that 49% of internet users are using
search engines on a daily basis, up from around 30% in 2002,
while the use of email on a typical day for the same six-year
period increased from 52% to 60%. These new figures show search
is growing at a faster rate than any other activity on the web,
including checking the news and use social networking sites –
which 39% and 13% of users do on a typical day, respectively.
This is certainly good news for companies like Google, Yahoo,
Microsoft, and others who are actively looking to increase its
search-engine advertising revenue. Even more so considering
that, according to the study, search engine users are typically
college-educated people with incomes of at least $50,000 a year.