Three-Quarters of U.S. Web Users Are In the Fast Lane

Seventy-eight percent of the U.S. active home online population connects via broadband. Their top online activities include gaming, instant messaging, social networking and e-mail, according to data released by Nielsen//NetRatings.

The number of active home users connecting through broadband is up 13 points from one year ago. Eighty-two percent of time spent online is attributed to Internet users with high-speed access. This group spent an average 34 hours and 50 minutes per person online in November, versus 26 hours and 13 minutes for narrowband users. Broadband users averaged 1,574 pages views in November, versus 681 pages for dial-up users.

Electronic Arts' online gaming site Pogo.com and EA.com attracted the most broadband time per person. Pogo.com averaged 4 hours and 23 minutes per person, and EA.com 3 hours and 42 minutes per broadband user. AOL Instant Messenger garnered an average 3 hours and 23 minutes of broadband time spent in November.

Top U.S. Sites by Time Per Home Broadband Users, November 2006
Site Broadband Time per Person (hh:mm:ss)Broadband Percentage of Site's Total TimeBroadband Unique Audience (000)
Pogo.com4:23:1690.896,029
EA.com3:42:4891.107,422
AOL Instant Messenger3:23:3687.1331,634
MySpace2:07:3488.6137,734
MSN Games1:58:3190.695,538
RuneScape1:57:5696.493,246
Yahoo Mail1:32:3387.9639,310
Google Gmail1:32:0892.135,514
iTunes1:30:1789.6117,336
Trend Micro1:21:3897.101,197
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, December 2006

Nielsen//NetRatings uses a sampling methodology through its MegaPanel of Internet users.