As highlighted in the first wave of the survey, the proportion of women joining the Web continues to increase. Amongst the younger age groups, chat, games, news, music, and sport content are popular whilst the older age groups spend most time finding information on news, stocks and shares, and personal finance. Researching information on clothing and to help with homework are important to the 14-17 year old group.
Online shopping continues to grow in popularity.
The convenience of 24 hour, year- round shopping is attracting many to use the Web to purchase goods. The number of people gathering information on selected products prior to purchasing online and offline has risen from 2 million to 3.3 million in the last six months. Popular merchandise purchased on the Internet range from computers and related products through to software, music CDs and travel services.