WWW and Internet Use Bulleted List
Browser You Expect to Use in 12 Months
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- Both European and US users expect to use a Netscape browser in the next 12 months (81.13%), with 12.13% stating Microsoft's Internet Explorer. These proportions are basically the same as with the Sixth Survey (80.45% Netscape vs. 12.18% Internet Explorer). Since Netscape provided a link to the surveys, we inspected the results to look for a corresponding bias in preferences from Netscape users. Close inspection revealed a small (2.2%) but statistically insignificant effect. The reliability of the results can be increased further since none of the various segments (Location, Gender, and Age) differ in their browser preferences.
Browsing Strategies
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- For this question, users were asked what strategies they use when browsing the Web. Favorite/Bookmark (users revisiting pages they have added to their favorite/bookmark), Index (using search engines such as Lycos), Meta-index (using large indices such as Yahoo), Opportunistic (following links from page to page as they are encountered), and URL (typing in known URLs). For this question, users were allowed to mark more than one answer. Once again, all categories had very high percentages. As in the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Survey, the highest was Bookmarks (82.14% Seventh vs. 82.69% Sixth), followed by Index (76.35% Seventh vs. 78.1%Sixth) and URL (68.40% Seventh vs. 69.44% Sixth). The percentages for Meta-indices (54.91%), Opportunistic (57.66%) and URL based (68.40%) strategies have dropped somewhat since the Sixth and Fifth Survey. As with the Sixth Survey, younger users are less likely to use bookmarks (75.68% 19-25 vs. 85.94% 50+), though differences for other strategies across age are not significant.
Connection Speed
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- Modems still dominate the day for Web users. One third of the users report using 28.8 Kb/sec modems, with 19.68% using 33.3 Kb/sec, and 11.02% using 14.4 Kb/sec modems. This is a big change for the Sixth Survey sixth months ago where just over half of the users (51.40%) were using 28.8 Kb/sec modems and 19.69% were using 14.4 Kb/sec modems. As once might expect, this represents a continued significant shift towards faster communication devices.
- European respondents, in general, have faster connection speeds. Nearly three fourths (70.73%) of the 50+ yr. old group uses28.8 Kb/sec or 33.3Kb/sec modems. Also, a higher percentage of respondents between 19 and 25 years old are unsure of their connection speed (16.24%), though those that do know, report fast speeds, most likely due to educational infrastructures of over 1 Mb/sec. These differences across strata are basically identical to the Sixth and Fifth Surveys indicating relative stability in this characteristic.
Electronic News
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- An increase occurred in the frequency of people accessing electronic news on a daily biases (23.76% Seventh vs. 18.95% Sixth), resulting in nearly one in four users accesses electronic news on a daily basis. The number of users accessing on a weekly basis though has remained about the same (21.05% Seventh vs. 22.94% Sixth vs. 22.1% Fifth) along with the number of respondents who have never accessed electronic news (12.68% vs. 14.15% Sixth vs. 13.9% Fifth). Females, in general, seem to access electronic news less frequently than males. As reflected in studies of news consumption in other mediums, e.g., television and newspapers, the younger generation consumes less news and on a more infrequent basis. This trend is reflected in online newspapers as well where 51.14% of 50+ yr. olds access electronic news at least weekly compared to only 40.14% of the 19-25 yr. olds. Both groups though show an increase in consumption of electronic news from the Sixth Survey where 41.07% 50+ yr. olds and 31.14% 19-25 yr. olds consumed news on at least a weekly basis.
Favorites Bookmarks Usage Patterns
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- The purpose of this question is to begin to understand what methods people use to manage their personal Web information via favorites/bookmarks. David Abrams of the University of Toronto originally developed this question, which was first included into the Sixth Survey.
- As one might expect with the slight increase in the number of bookmarks/favorites being stored by users since the Sixth Survey, users in the Seventh Survey report minor increases in overall bookmark usage behaviors. As with the Sixth Survey, nearly all users (85.92%) create new entries, with 69.61% deleting entries and 61.53% rearranging entries. More than half of the users (61.94%) create folders, with 45.86% creating sub-folders (folders within folders). A fair number of users change the titles of their entries (47.36%) though not may users annotate entries (17.61%). Only 4.94% claim not to use this facility of the browser.
- Males engage in significantly more favorite/bookmark activities than females. The baby boomers, 25-50 yr. olds, which have more items in their bookmarks, also tend to utilize more aspects of favorite/bookmark functionality.
Financial Material
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- Just under a third of respondents (31.27%) reported that they never use the Web to find economic information, continuing a trend of more users experiencing online financial data (33.89% Sixth vs. 38.0% Fifth had never accessed financial data online). Part of this increase was in daily users, where 14.97% of the users currently access this information compared to 11.78% Sixth Survey and 8.96% in the Fifth Survey. More females than males report never having used the Web for economic information (39.77% female vs. 27.26% male), which is noticeably less than the Sixth Survey (42.98% female vs. 29.82%) and Fifth Survey (49.9% females, 32.6% males).
Frequency of Use
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- For this question, we mean how many times you use the Web for a specific set of tasks or activities. We do not mean how many times the browser is launched per day. Usage increased slightly from the Sixth Survey (85.16% Seventh daily usage vs. 81.88% Sixth daily usage). 41.69% Seventh (45.92% Sixth) of respondents use the Web 1 to 4 times a day, 41.69% (35.96% Sixth) use it more frequently, and 14.84% (18.1% Sixth) use it less frequently. Female users are less likely to be heavy daily users than males and the 19-25 age group tends to be the heaviest users with the elder group being the least frequent users.
Hours Used
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- While the number of times browsers are used per day has increased since the last survey, the number of hours people user the Web has remain about the same, with just over one in five users (22.19%) reporting using their browsers over 20 hours per week. 28.92% of the users spend 10 to 20 hours a week on the Web, with 17.08% spending 7 to 9 hrs/wk and 14.84% spending 4 to 6 hrs per week. Casual use of less than 5 hours per week is down from 16.87% in the Fifth Survey and 15.18% in the Sixth to 14.88% in the Seventh, further emphasizing the trend towards increased usage. For comparison, in the Third Survey conducted in April of 1995, only 28.46% of the users spent more than 10 hrs/wk on the Web. Twenty-four months later, nearly twice as many users (51.1%) spend more than 10 hrs/wk! Females, older users, and US users are more likely to spend less time on the Web than their counterparts. The average number of hours per week user spend on the Web is 13.6, which is slightly more than the 9.1 hours/week reported by FIND/SVP's 1997 American Internet User Survey, thus reflecting a bias in our sample towards heavier users of the Web. This makes sense given that only those users that use the Web regularly are likely to participate in our surveys.
How Users Find out About WWW Pages
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- For this question, users were allowed to mark more than one answer. The primary method people find out about other sites is via search engines (86.34% Seventh vs. 87.71% Sixth) and other Web pages (84.63% vs. 86.92% Sixth). This continues the reversal from the Fifth Survey, where 90.7% reported finding out about Web pages from other Web pages and 83.1% from search engines. Printed media (62.47% Seventh vs. 67.95% Sixth), friends (56.92% Seventh vs. 56.66% Sixth), TV (30.20% Seventh vs. 35.54% Sixth), email signatures (31.23% Seventh vs. 30.01% Sixth), and Usenet Newsgroups (32.75% Seventh vs. 34.25% Sixth) remain other popular methods for finding out about other pages. The use of Usenet has declined 12 percentage points from the Fifth Survey (44.4%). As with the Sixth Survey, the younger generation is more likely to find out about other pages from friends, while the older generation make more use of printed media.
Image Loading
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- This is a relatively new question to the Surveys (started in the Sixth Survey), but one that we've been meaning to ask for quite some time due to the numerous queries we field about how often people surf without images being loaded for each page automatically. This is a big concern for graphic designers who are faced with the opposing goals of producing media rich content that everyone can access quickly. As with the Sixth Survey, most people surf with images loaded automatically as (86.41% Seventh vs. 85.40% Sixth) report turning image loading off under 25% of the time. The remaining 13.59% report not loading image anywhere from 26 to 100% of the time. As one might expect due to the slow transoceanic connection between US and Europe, more Europeans turn image loading off. Differences between gender were not observed, though younger users are more likely to have image loading turned off.
Instead of Watching TV
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- Over one third (35.17% Seventh vs. 36.95% Sixth) of respondents claim that they use the Web instead of watching TV on a daily basis. An additional (27.06% Seventh vs. 29.03% Sixth) say the Web replaces TV on a weekly basis, usually more than once a week. This pattern almost exactly matches the pattern found in the Sixth and Fifth Surveys. These number when used in conjunction with the use of the email as being on equal par with the phone paint a tremendously strong picture of the rapid integration of the Internet and World Wide Web into the fabric of the lives of those who currently use it. This is truly an amazing feat to accomplish in only a few years! Respondents from Europe are far less likely to use the Web instead of watching TV; 31.56% (32.88% Sixth) say they have never used the Web instead of watching TV. Males and 50+ yr. olds supplement TV watching with Web surfing more so than the other segments of users.
Intranet Use
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- Of those user who belong to a commercial, educational, or miscellaneous organization, 46.42% claim that their organization has an Intranet. European users have a higher incidence rate of Intranet use (54.66%) vs. their US counterparts (46.37%). Many female and 50+ yr. old users found the question not applicable.
Monitor Color Support
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- Of equal importance to the size of the screen users employ to experience the WWW is the monitor's color support. While many users are unsure of their monitor's color support (33.37% Seventh vs. 34.76%Sixth), 41.78% claim to have 24-bit deep color (38.16% Sixth) and 19.09% claim to have 16-bit deep color (20.19% Sixth). Less than 1% of the users have monochrome monitors (0.59%). As with the Sixth Survey, Europeans were more likely to have 8-bit color (8.85%) than US users (3.66%).
Monitor Resolution
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- To complete the picture so to speak (puns are a terrible thing to waste!), knowledge of the resolution of monitors is also necessary. Again, a fair number of users were unsure as to what their monitor characteristics are (26.34% Seventh vs. 26.95% Sixth). The remaining users report having 1024 x 768 resolution (22.42% Seventh vs. 22.21% Sixth), 800 x 600 resolution (19.52% Seventh vs. 17.67% Sixth) and 640 x 480 (15.37% Seventh vs. 19.95% Sixth). Europeans , males and users age 26-50 were more likely to known the characteristics of their monitors.
Newsgroups
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- There has been an increase in the use of newsgroups since the Sixth Survey six months ago. Over one third of the users (37.96% Seventh vs. 32.81% Sixth) access Usenet Newsgroups at least weekly, with 46.80% (46.1% Sixth) either having never access newsgroups of only accessed them a few times. Females and the 19 - 25 yr. old group tend to access newsgroups less frequency than their counterparts.
Number of Items in Favorites Bookmark
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- Overall, there has been a slight increase in the number of bookmarks/favorites people have since the Sixth Survey. As with the Sixth Survey, the largest category of users has 11-50 items in their favorites/bookmarks (Seventh: 35.67%, Sixth: 37.64%), and 79.26% have over 11 items (a slight increase since the Sixth Survey 77.3%). The percentage of respondents with over 100 items in their favorites/bookmarks jumped to 21.84% from 18.7% in the Sixth. The distribution of items is nearly identical to the distribution bookmarks since the Fourth Survey.
- As in the Fifth and Fourth Surveys, more European respondents than US respondents had over 100 items in their favorites (30.73% Europe vs. 21.20% US). In general, females have fewer items than males, The respondents with the highest number of items in their favorites/bookmarks are users in the 26-50 yr. age range (Seventh: 47.17, Sixth: 44.59%) have over 51 items in their list.
Primary Uses of Browser
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- For the Seventh Survey, we added several new categories called "Information Gathering", "Searching", and "Communication." Since, users were allowed to mark more than one answer, certain comparisons between the Seventh Survey and previous Surveys is possible. We also removed the "Business Research" and "Academic Research" options. With this format, users placed more value on information and communication capabilities than browsing and entertainment as with previous surveys.
- The most common Web activity is to gather information (86.03%), followed by searching (63.01), browsing (61.29%), work (54.05%), education (52.21%), communication (47.02%), and entertainment (45.48%). Shopping remained stable (18.65%) from the Sixth Survey (18.83%), though this is much higher than the Fifth Survey a year ago where 14.91% reported shopping (11.1% in the Fourth Survey). For the US, one in five users report using the Web for shopping (20.32%). This represents a moderate and steady growth of the Web for shopping, a trend that is expected to continue, as online transactions become easier and more choices become available. Europeans tend to report less recreational uses of the Web than do US users.
- As with the Fifth Survey, males reported slightly more work-related uses of the Web: work (53.18%) and business research (44.61%) while females reported more educational uses (58.46%). Also mirroring the findings of the Fifth Survey, the 26-50 age group reported significantly more work (58.11%) and business research (47.99%) being done on the Web than other age groups. Those aged 19-25 report more entertainment uses (75.85%) and academic research (51.18%).
Problems Using Favorites Bookmarks
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- Everyone complains about how difficult it is to manage all the information found on the Web, but exactly what are their complaints about? David Abrams of the University of Toronto originally developed this question, which was first included into the Sixth Survey. Users were able to select more than one answer to this question.
- An even higher number of users claim not to experience any difficulties using favorites/bookmarks (49.06%) than the Sixth Survey (45.64%). However, if we reframe the question and non-users are excluded, almost half of the users do have problems using favorites/bookmarks! The biggest problem is in making changes (24.58%). About one in four users complain that they are not able to quickly store items away (22.21%) and organize the contents (20.46%). Another 14.34% expressed that the inability to see all the content of their favorites/bookmarks was a problem. The ranking and proportion of responses for the Seventh Survey is quite similar to the Sixth Survey. The 50+ yr. olds (56.62%) were more likely to not think there was a problem with using the facilities than the 19-25 yr. olds (44.04%).
Problems Using the Web
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- For this question, users were asked which of the following are the biggest problems the Web (users could selected more than one response): links that don't work [linkrot] "broken links", not being able to find a page I know is out there ("find known info"), not being able to organize well the pages & information I gather ("organize"), not being able to find a page I once visited ("revisit"), it takes too long to view/download pages ("speed"), not being able to visualize where I have been and where I can go ("visualize"), and it costs too much ("cost"). Users were allowed to mark more than one answer. For the Seventh Survey, we added the "broken links" option.
- Speed continues to be the number one problem facing Web users, with 66.31% of the users reporting that it takes too long to download pages. However, this represents a 10% decrease from the Sixth Survey (76.55) and a 14% decrease from the Fifth Survey one year ago. This effect is most likely due the increases in connect speed of users to the Internet (See: Connection Speed). Almost half of the users report broken links as a big problem (49.90%), a situation with no immediate solution. The next big problems are "finding known info" (30.31% Seventh vs. 34.09% Sixth), organizing collected information (27.80% Seventh vs. 31.03% Sixth), and being able to find pages already visited (12.16% Seventh vs. 13.41% Sixth). Once again, cost does not seem to be an issue, with only 5.41% (7.75% Sixth) reporting this as a problem. Given that the average household income of Web users is well above the normal population, this is not very surprising and cannot be taken to mean that the Web is currently affordable for all. Males are more likely to complain about speed and organizing information while females are more likely to cite broken links and finding known information as the biggest problems.
Product Information
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- Product information remains one of the most popular types of information accessed. A surprisingly small proportion of users have never accessed product information on the Web (8.16 Seventh vs. 7.83% Sixth), while 12.37% access product information on a daily basis. 26.16% (30.1% Sixth) access it on a weekly basis and 28.91% (25.89% Sixth) on a monthly basis. This is roughly the same distribution as found in the Fifth Survey indicating the steadfast utility of the Web for production information gathering. Males access product information more regularly than females do: 32.17% of males access it on a weekly basis compared to only 21.79%% of females-a finding consistent with the Sixth Survey. Only 5.71% of the male respondents claim to have never accessed product information on the Web compared to 13.71% of the female respondents. There are still no clear trends for use of product information with respect to age, although there are noticeable differences in many of the frequency categories.
Reasons For Saving and Printing Documents
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- For this question, users could mark more than one answer. As found in the Sixth Survey, by far the most widely cited reason for save and printing documents is to use them off line (62.04% Seventh vs. 62.32% Sixth). Not surprising given the poor resolution of current monitors, 51.06% (52.57% Sixth) store/print documents to read offline. There seems to be a far amount of sharing of the online world with those without access, as 46.25% (49.28% Sixth) distribute the documents to others not online. This ranking and percentages are nearly identical to the Sixth and Fifth Surveys. Nearly a third report saving/printing Web pages for archival purposes (34.28%) and out of fear that the content will disappear (26.46%).
Reference Material
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- Reference information continues to be the most frequently accessed category of those we inquired about, and people are using the Web more frequently than ever to access reference material. Nearly a third of the users (30.77% Seventh vs. 26.93% Sixth) of respondents reported using reference information on a daily basis and 38.50% (39.71% Sixth) use it on a weekly basis. Only 1.02% of the respondents have never accessed reference information on the Web! It seems reasonable that part of the reason for the increase in the number of hours people use the Web is reflected in the increased utility as measured by accessing reference material. Note that this is an area that is highly dependent upon useful content, much of which is has seriously started to emerge. The world of information has essentially become one's bookshelf (well almost). There is little difference across gender in the use of reference material.
Research Material
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- The use of the Web to access research material seems to be increasing. 42.86% (39.16% Sixth) of the users reported using research material at least weekly. A fifth of the respondents (21.67% Seventh vs. 22.5% Sixth) reported using research information "a few times", with only 10.52% (12.79% Sixth) reported having never used online research information via the WWW. European respondents reported more frequent use of research information.
Shopping
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- For this question, shopping refers to actually making purchases over the Web. Over half of the Web users report having shopped on the Web at least once (61.47% of all users, 64.62% US and 50.47% European). A high percentage of users though (38.53%) still have never used the Web for online shopping, though this is lower than the Sixth Survey (41.16%) and the Fifth Survey (46.4%). Over a third of the users report having used it for shopping a few times (37.43 Seventh vs. 36.64% Sixth). There is almost no daily use (1.03%), but strong month use (16.15%). As seen in the Sixth Survey, males are more likely to have used the Web for shopping than females. Also, baby boomers (26 - 50 yr. olds) are more likely to use the Web for shopping than the older and younger generations.
Use of Communication Technologies
Graphs: [Location] [Age] [Gender]- With the purpose of gaining a better understanding of how Web users utilize other communications technologies, we asked users to report their use of these other technologies. As with the Sixth Survey, just about all (98.36% Seventh vs. 98.21%Sixth) of Web users have and use email. This is the roughly the same utilization as the phone (96.31% Seventh vs. 97.24% Sixth), which demonstrates an amazing acceptance/internalization of this new communications medium by the user community. Even more startling is that only three out of four people (71.19%) report using traditional mail (read: email has surpassed the use of traditional postal mail amongst Web users!). Email is truly the killer application of the 90's and the Internet. It is interesting to note that these percentages are nearly exactly the same as reported Sixth and Fifth Surveys.
- As far as for other communications technologies, Web users are technically savvy, with 67.02%% using faxes, 59.15% using voice mail, close to half using wireless phones (45.79%), and 31.27% using pagers. Europeans are less likely to use pager, wireless, next day mail, postal mail, and voice mail than their US counterparts. Use of communications technologies is quite similar across gender however. As one might expect, the 26-50 generation is the heaviest users of technology, with the 19-25 yr. olds being the least heavy users (though this is not true for pagers).
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