Social networking is taking up a large chunk of the time Americans spend online, followed by gaming. Although emailing is losing favor, it’s not likely to fade away. “There needs to be something else, something better than social networking, to completely take its place,” maintained Scott Testa, a professor of marketing at Cabrini College.

With 41.2 percent of U.S. consumers’ online time devoted to social networking, social games and emailing, other online activities are becoming neglected. The time consumers spent on instant messaging, for instance, dropped to 4 percent from 4.7 percent. Portal usage dropped to 4.4 percent from 5.5 percent.

Meanwhile other once high-growth categories have slowed dramatically. Search increased to 3.5 percent in June 2010 as a percentage of time devoted to this category — compared to 3.4 percent a year ago.

Watching videos or movies was the only other activity to experience a significant growth spurt in terms of share in online activity, growing by 12 percent from 3.5 to 3.9 percent.

None of this is surprising, said Scott Testa, a professor of marketing at Cabrini College.

“Social network sites like Facebook and Twitter is where Internet use is moving,” he told TechNewsWorld. “That is why providers likeMicrosoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) are trying to mimic these features as much as possible.”

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Americans-Tend-to-Be-Social-Playful-Online-70535.html

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