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More People Find their Home on the Internet
| More people continue to flock to the Internet, and a greater number are doing so on a daily basis, according to the most recent quarterly Consumer Internet Barometer, produced by WorldGroup, Forrester Research and The Conference Board. But while the overall levels of usage and trust have improved from a year ago, consumers' overall level of satisfaction continues to fluctuate, the report said. There also is a shift in why people go online and how often they do so. While about 43 percent said last year that their major reason for going online was to engage in a variety of personal communication activities, only 38 percent say that's true today. According to the report, 17 percent are going online to do personal research, up from about 15 percent a year ago, and nearly 20 percent are using the Internet to conduct work-related projects, up from 18 percent a year ago. The frequency with which consumers are logging on also has increased over the past year, according to the report. Now, 39 percent say they log on daily compared to 36 percent a year ago. More than 71 percent of users who primarily log on to conduct work-related activities do so daily, while close to 64 percent of consumers engaged primarily in personal communication go online every day. Only 49 percent of those using the Internet primarily for personal research log on with the same frequency. |