According to new research from the Nielsen Co., games have overtaken e-mail as Americans’ No. 2 online time killer. Meanwhile, blogs and social networks – Facebook, in particular – are still what Americans spend the biggest part of their online time on.
According to Nielsen research, of the nearly 24 hours of time that Americans on average spent online during the month of June, 23 percent was on social networks and blogs. That is up from 16 percent in the same month in 2009.
The most visited social network was Facebook, Nielsen said, which recently celebrated reaching 500 million active users around the world. The site commanded 85 percent of the time Americans spent on social networks.
Playing games accounted for more than 10 percent of Internet users’ total time online in June, up from 9 percent in the same month a year earlier. E-mail, on the other hand, accounts for just 8 percent of Americans’ Internet time, down from nearly 12 percent in June of 2009. That could reflect many Americans contacting friends through Facebook or phone text messages rather than traditional e-mail. (Source: www.apnews.com)