Email and Search Still the Most Popular Activities Online, By Far

The web is constantly evolving, Facebook is a giant, but the most popular activities online, at least according to one study, are still search and email.

The results shouldn't be surprising, while many people use social networking sites, or visit blogs to get their news, they are also very likely to use search and email, at least at some point.

"A May 2011 Pew Internet survey finds that 92% of online adults use search engines to find information on the Web, including 59% who do so on a typical day," the report reads.

"This places search at the top of the list of most popular online activities among U.S. adults. But it is not alone at the top. Among online adults, 92% use email, with 61% using it on an average day," it adds.

Search and email tie as being used by 92 percent of internet users in the US, but social networking has been growing fast, some 65 percent of users visit a social network on a regular basis.

Another interesting trend is just how often people search or use email. While only 29 percent of internet users visited a search engine every day in 2002, 59 percent do now.

Email usage was already high in 2002, 49 percent of users emailed each day, while 61 percent do now.

Other popular activities online are catching up on news, done by 76 percent of users, and shopping, done by 71 percent.

It's important to note that the survey only asks if a user visits a certain site and does a certain activity, it doesn't measure on which people spend the most time on.

Spending several hours a day on Facebook or doing a Google search once every couple of weeks counts the same in this study.