Search, Email Still Favorites Among Internet Users

09.08.2011
Despite the ongoing --with millions of users flocking to either Facebook, Twitter, or Google+--the top favorite online activities still seem to be the basics: search and email.

At least, this is one of the findings released Tuesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Based in information gathered in April and May 2011, the report shows that an unsurprising 92 percent of use search engines to find information on the Web (59 percent do this every day). Similarly, 92 percent of online adults use the Web to check email, and 61 percent perform this task daily.

"Since the Pew Internet Project began measuring adults' online activities in the last decade, these two behaviors have consistently ranked as the most popular," Pew says. "Even as early as 2002, more than eight in 10 online adults were using search engines, and more than nine in 10 online adults were emailing."

While the growth of search and email as favorite activities has remained constant over the years, their use has grown more habitual over the last decade, the report says.

"Perhaps the most significant change over that time is that both activities have become more habitual," it notes. "Today, roughly six in ten online adults engage in each of these activities on a typical day; in 2002, 49 percent of online adults used email each day, while just 29 percent used a search engine daily."