What the most popular online activities are

With all the changes that take place in the digital landscape, some activities have remained popular throughout the years, even as new technology emerges.

Not to say that new technology doesn’t excite users, but some activities have evolved to become habitual.

According to a new study from Pew Internet & American Life Project, search and email continue to be the most popular online activities with adults. Both search and email are used by 92% of adults online.

The Pew Internet Project has been tracking these types of statistics for nearly a decade now. Throughout this time, search and email have been ranked as the most popular online activities.

As a recent article presenting an overview of Pew’s new report states, “Even as early as 2002, more than eight in ten adults were using search engines, and more than nine in ten online adults were emailing. The numbers associated with search engine use and gone up since that time, and email has seemed to stay the same…and that was nine years ago.

What’s even more important to content marketers and online publishers is the change in these activities. Search and email have become habitual for online adults, as 61% use email daily and 59% use search engines daily.

Taking advantage of search and email

Even with technological evolution online, email and search have remained as constant popular activities. Therefore, these activities need to be a priority for online publishers.

For email, publishers and content marketers should focus on:

-Designing and testing email templates

-Activities that help build your email file (SEO campaigns, social media, conversion architecture, etc.)

-Practice email copywriting and test different headlines.

-Monitor your open rate, click through rate and the net growth of your list.

For search, publishers and content marketers should focus on:

-Search engine optimization for your website.

-SEO copywriting and SEO campaign management to promote your content organically.

-Other methods for sharing your content that will help your organic listings.

Don’t forget to leave comments on these pages if you have questions or comments relating to the free reports!

Over two-thirds (68%) of people say they’re searching online for COVID-19 updates – which makes it the most popular online activity, according to a GlobalWebIndex survey.

Its researchers questioned almost 4,000 US and UK consumers, and found that it’s men (73%) who are more likely to be looking for coronavirus news than women (62%), but it’s still the number one online activity for both genders.

The survey, conducted between March 25 and 30, found only a third of people are searching online for topics that are not related to the virus.

It's clear from the findings, GlobalWebIndex says, that, in the US, there is significant distrust in what the government is saying – consumers there trust the World Health Organization far more than their own government (61% versus 46%). People in the UK have more faith in officialdom, with 62% saying they trust information on their government’s website.

Facebook is the go-to platform for updates on the pandemic in the UK, with 30% of people saying it’s their primary source; this is even more pronounced in the US where 47% cite Facebook as their number one source.

Overall, 39% of UK consumers say they’re reading more news stories on social media as a result of the pandemic. But men are three times as likely as women to say they’ve started following more journalists on social media (25% vs. 8%).

The vast majority of US (87%) and UK (80%) consumers say they’ve increased their consumption of indoor media generally since the virus crisis began. Broadcast TV, online videos and online TV streaming were cited as the most popular channels.

The results, researchers say, show people primarily see news as a free resource during the outbreak. Among higher earners and men there is parity between the rate of those who are willing to pay for trustworthy news and those who aren’t, but there is generally far more pushback against paying for news in the UK.

CEO and founder of GlobalWebIndex Tom Smith said, “In the UK, the rate of those who are resistant to paying for trustworthy news is almost four times higher than the rate of those who are willing to pay for it. This is a reflection of the fact that UK consumers have much stronger confidence in the trustworthiness of the free news resources available to them compared to those in the US.”

A third of consumers in both markets say they want to see more topics that have nothing to do with the coronavirus, and almost 20% of millennials say they’re currently searching for holidays, perhaps suggesting this age group may be more open to planning for life beyond the current crisis.

Sourced from GlobalWebIndex

What’s the most popular internet activity? It’s a tie between those perennial winners, search and email. A new survey finds both are done by 92% of online adults in the United States.

Most Popular Activities

The stats come from a Pew Internet survey from May 2011, out today. Here’s the trend chart from the survey:

You can see from the chart that both email and search have been the most popular internet activities since Pew has run these type of surveys back in 2002. Typically, email has been just slightly more popular than search, but the two are tied at being conducted by 92% of internet users.

This latest survey on search was conducted from April 26 through May 22, 2011 and had a sample of 2,277 adults, those 18 years and older.

The Rise Of Social Networks & News Seeking

In other activities, getting online news (76%) has held overtaking buying products online (71%) for the second year running.

Especially notable is that social networking use has continued rising out of nowhere to 65%. That seems likely to move higher in future years.

Keep in mind that the data for all these activities come from different reports that Pew conducts at different times. The search figures came from a survey done earlier this year, as mentioned. The email figures came from a survey done in November 2010 but are reported as for 2011.

It’s not said when the surveys for the other three activities were conducted. You can read more about all this in the longer PDF version of the Pew report here.

Email & Search Are Habits

When asked about daily use (as opposed to any use), email was just slightly ahead of search, with 61% saying they do email daily, versus 59% who say they search each day.

This daily use also has grown over time, making search and email have become more “habitual.” Pew writes:

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

The Demographics Of Daily Search Usage

Pew also provided a demographic breakdown of search usage (one of email usage is also included in the survey):

From the breakdown, daily searching is most popular with:

• Men, 61% versus 57% of women
• Whites, 60% versus 57% of African Americans and 48% of Hispanics
• 18-29 year-olds, 66% versus 64% for 30-49 year-olds, 52% of 50-64 year-olds and 37% of those 65 years or older
• College graduates, 75% versus 66% with some college education, 41% of high school grads and 29% with some high school education
• Those earning $75,000 or more, 78%, versus $30-$45,000 at 67%, $50-$75,000 at 66% and less than $30,000 at 38%

As you can see, in terms of daily use, most of the differences are fairly slight. Hispanics, those 50 and older, with only some high school education and those earning less than $30,000 per year are the only groups that do daily searching at less than 50%.

In terms of any use, the differences are even less. All but one group (those with some high school education) report that they have used search engines at some point in the high 80% range and above.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

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