We Spend More Time Online and There's a Shift in How We Spend It

It seems that the internet has witnessed a surge in popularity over the past three years, if a new study is anything to go by.

UKOM (the UK Online Measurement Company) found that people now spend 65 per cent more time online than they did back in 2007, with the type of sites they visit also changing.  Social networking accounted for just nine per cent of internet browsing in April 2007, although this has now risen to 23 per cent of time in the UK.

Among some of the most successful online sectors are news content, email and general portals. Instant messaging, on the other hand, has seen a decline in interest over this period, falling from 14 per cent to just five.

Speaking on behalf of UKOM, Alex Burmaster commented: "One thing has remained constant and that is the bulk of time accounted for by communicating, networking and playing games.  "These are the pillars on which the internet as a heavily used medium are built."

A recent poll conducted by ISPreview.co.uk discovered that more than half of UK consumers would be willing to pay more for super-fast 100Mbps broadband access.