What do people do online?

The Pew Internet and American Life Project has been asking that question for years. And what they've found in this year's report is that people are increasingly using search. You can read for yourself of course, so visit the link above if you'd like.

If you would rather see it all in a nifty chart, well, here you go:


The report confirms demographic correlations to high search usage that are consistent with other aspects of being online: namely, better educated, younger and wealthier people index higher for use of search on a daily basis than their less educated, older, less wealthy fellow citizens. Maybe they just have more questions?

One other data point is broadband. With 55% of Americans connected at highspeeds to the internet, broadband is the single most important factor in indexing high for daily use of search.

Search is where people are. The message for marketers would seem clear: we need search no further for a reason to integrate search engine marketing into our campaigns.