Articles

June 2006 - E-marketing Minute - The Surfing Habits Of Different Genders

Men are more likely than women to engage in personal Web surfing at work, according to a recent survey. Almost two-thirds (65 percent) of men who access the Internet from work admitted to accessing nonwork-related Web sites during work hours versus 58 percent of women.

The annual survey was published by Websense Inc., a San Diego developer of Web security and filtering productivity software. For the survey, 851 U.S. workers at organizations with 100+ employees were interviewed by phone or e-mail.

Men are more likely to spend more time surfing at work for both work and nonwork tasks. For instance, men admit to spending 11.6 hours on average per week on job-related Web sites and 2.3 hours per week on nonwork-related Web sites. By comparison, women admit to surfing an average of 9.0 hours on work-related and personal sites and only 1.5 hours per week on nonwork-related sites.

Men and women also visit different types of nonwork Web sites while they are on the job. Men, for example, are much more likely than women to visit weather, sports, investment/stock and blogs. More men than women view online pornography at work, whether by accident or on purpose. Women are more likely to visit travel-related and shopping sites than men.

Finally, the study shows both genders have at least one thing in common when it comes to surfing the Web: Both men and women can easily be drawn in by the Internet for its pure entertainment value or as a resource to complete personal errands.