Technology Bulleted List
Browser You Expect to Use in 12 Months
- As we would expect, WebTV respondents differed from other respondents for this question. Almost all of them chose "Other" as the browser they expected to use 12 months from now. For a discussion of these differences, see WebTV Respondents.
- Also, keep in mind that we received a link from Netscape for several days during the survey, so these results may be somewhat skewed toward Netscape users. Rather than comparing between Netscape and Microsoft, the more interesting comparison in this graph is between Netscape Communicator (30%) and Netscape Navigator (30%). It is somewhat suprising that these would be so evenly divided.
Connection Speed
- As in previous surveys, most web users are connecting at modem speeds (33.6K or less: 55% Eighth, 66% Seventh; the difference in percentages is mainly accounted for by those who are unsure of their connection speed). The good news is that average modem speed is increasing with 27% of users using 33.6K modems in this survey compared to 20% in the Seventh. In general, European users have faster connections as do users in the 19-50 age range. Expert users are much more likely to know their connection speed, but still a substantial number connect at modem speeds (33.6K or less: 47%).
Email Accounts
- The largest category of respondents reports having one email account
that they access from home (25%). Overall, 42% of respondents report having
one email account while 56% report having more than one. Europeans are more
likely than US users to have multiple accounts and to access them from multiple
places (30% Europe vs. 20% US). Europeans are also more likely to access
their accounts only from work, regardless of how many they have. Older respondents are more likely to access accounts from home (65%). They are also more likely to have only a single account (53%). Experts are more likely to have multiple accounts (74%) and to access them from multiple places.
Email Experiences
- Almost all respondents have received (99%) and sent (98%) email. Dealing with attachments is fairly common (around 75%) while dealing with secure email is fairly uncommon (around 23%). Just over 40% of respondents report having deleted a message that they later realized they needed. 63% of respondents have archived email messages and 62% have received unsolicited commercial email (SPAM). Men, respondents age 19-50, and experts have had more diverse email experiences.
Equipment Owned
- The most common piece of equipment owned is a printer, either black and white (41%) or color (47%). Following that is fax machines (24%) and scanners (21%). Since this survey was heavily advertised on Web TV, we have an unusually large percentage of respondents who own a Web TV (26%). This is probably not representative of the web population as a whole. The percentage of web users using Web TV cannot be determined with our methodology.
Frequency of Switching Browsers
- Most users have not changed browsers within the past year (71%). Those who have switch infrequently with most switching only once (15%). Novices and
older users (who also tend to be novices) are less likely to have switched browsers. Expert users are likely to switch browsers more frequently (33% at least once).
Frequency of Switching Email Packages
- Most respondents have not switched their email package in the last year (73%) which is probably related to the fact that most respondents did not explicitly choose their current package (See: Why Email Package Was Chosen). Older users and novices are less likely to have switched than younger users and experts.
How Browser Was Obtained
- The largest category of respondents say that they downloaded their current
browser for free from the Internet (28%) and that category is even larger for
European respondents (40%). The next largest group got their browsers from
their Internet Service Provider (20%). Only about 11% of respondents explicitly purchased their current browser. Males are more likely than females to have
downloaded it for free. Older respondents are more likely to get it from their Imps and younger respondents are more likely to get it from their schools or companies. Experts are also much more likely to have downloaded it for free (46%) while novices are more likely to get it from ISPs (29%), retail stores (11%), and as part of a hardware bundle (11%).
Monitor Color Support
- The majority of respondents report having a color monitor (75%), although
many are unsure of its bit depth (30%). As with the previous surveys, those
who know their bit depth generally report 24 bit color (32%, 42% Seventh, 38% Sixth). The decrease in percentage for this survey can be mainly attributed to the fact than many more respondents chose "Other" for this survey (21%) compared to the Seventh (1%). It probably does not represent a real decrease in the percentage of users with 24 bit capabilities.
- WebTV respondents differed from other respondents for this question. For a discussion of these differences, see WebTV Respondents.
Monitor Resolution
- This question was altered slightly from previous surveys to ask what
the monitor resolution was set to rather than what it is so
these responses are not directly comparable to previous surveys. One
similarity with previous surveys however, is that a large percentage of respondents don't know what their resolution is set to (40%). For the rest, the most common setting is 800x600 (19%) followed by 1024x768 (14%). Although respondents from Europe are more likely to know their resolution, the ranking is the same. Experts, as we might expect, are more likely to know their resolution: 27% report having 800x600 and 25% have 1025x768.
- WebTV respondents differed from other respondents for this question. For a discussion of these differences, see WebTV Respondents.
Monitor Size
- As we would expect, WebTV respondents differed from other respondents for this question. Since they are using TVs, which tend to be larger than monitors, the results are slightly skewed toward larger sizes. For a discussion of these differences, see WebTV Respondents.
- Overall, though, the largest category of users reports having 16-18 inch monitors (23%). The next largest have 15 inch monitors (19%) and the next are over 21 inches (15%) most of which are actually TVs.
Online Services Subscribed To
- Note: The Microsoft Network was inadvertently omitted from this question, but will be included as a choice in the next survey.
- This question was last asked in the Sixth survey, with relatively similar results. Over half of our respondents report using some other online service provider (52%) which is consistent with a year ago (53% in Sixth survey). Of those listed as choices, AOL has the largest share of US respondents (12%) while CompuServe has most European respondents (9.9%). Half of our European respondent report having no online service provider which is because they tend to get access through their work and universities. Experts also tend to have no online service provider (44%) because they get access through work or school.
- WebTV respondents differed from other respondents for this question. WebTV users account for most of the "Other" category in this graph. For a discussion of these differences, see WebTV Respondents.
Speed Upgrade
- There seems to be no end to the demand (and need) for speed when it comes to the web. 39% of respondents report having upgraded their connection speed in the last year while 38% have not. Almost a third (31%) plan to upgrade their speed in the next six months, and 17% plan to upgrade after already having upgraded this year! More experts report upgrading and planning to upgrade than novices.
Use of Communication Technologies
- Respondents report routinely using email (96%) and phone (98%) with almost the same frequency, which is consistent with previous results. Postal mail (77%) and voice mail (58%) are also fairly common. Those in the 26-50 age range are more likely to use a variety of communication technologies. Experts use voice mail (74%) almost as much as they use postal mail (80%).
Use of Internet Technologies
- With the veritable explosion in the number of new internet technologies available, it is interesting to see which are getting used. Viewing web pages with Java/JavaScript in them is quite common (68%) as is using a chat room (61%). More than half of respondents have used the internet's audio capabilities (55%). Push technologies (such as Pointcast) have been used by a quarter of respondents. Males have generally used more technologies than female, with the exception of chat rooms which the same percentage of males and females have used. A higher percentage of younger users have used chat rooms compared to other groups (86%). Users between ages 19-50 are most likely to have used other technologies. The more years you have been on the internet, the more likely that you have used different internet technologies, except for chat which has been used by all experience levels.
Using Current Browser Version
- Almost 40% of respondents report that they are definitely using the latest
version of their current browser. However, just over 20% are definitely using
an older version. In general, respondents are fairly certain about what version of a browser they are using. European respondents, male respondents, and
experience users are slightly more certain than other groups. More than half
of experienced users report using the latest version of their browser (60%).
Almost a third of novice users (31%) don't know what version they're using.
Why Browser Was Chosen
- For this question, respondents could choose more than one answer. Almost a third of respondents (31%) reported that they did not explicitly choose their current browser. The most common reasons for choosing a particular browser are its features (27%), previous experience with the vendor (25%), and that it's the easiest to use (25%). Hearing about the browser from ads, online discussions, trade shows, and friends were not very common reasons for choosing a browser. European respondents are more likely to explicitly choose a browser and place much more emphasis on features (40%). Men, middle aged users, and experienced users are more likely to explicitly choose their browser than other groups
and therefore have more reasons for choosing their current browser.
Why Email Package Was Chosen
- For this question, respondents could choose more than one answer. Most users did not explicitly choose their email package (47%). For those who did,
integration with other programs (19%), ease of use (17%), and features (17%) were the most common reasons. Advertising, magazine recommendations, and online discussions were not common reasons for choosing an email package. Men are slightly more likely than women to explicitly choose an email package. Novices are less likely to explicitly choose while experts choose based on features and ease of use.
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GVU's WWW Surveying Team |