Source: Nielsen’s June 2010 report of What Americans Do Online.
This data provides a useful benchmark of where America is with usage but it also raises so much ambiguity too. It’s particularly intriguing to me that “Gaming” and “Multi-Category Entertainment” are not broken down further. I would love to know what the drill down there and also in the nebulous “Other” looks like.
As the line between these separate categories is converging, this kind of study becomes less useful. For example, Social Networking / Videos (YouTube). In the future I’d prefer that Nielsen consider either updating their categories or defining them more clearly now that the line between many of these areas is blurring.
For example:
- When people play a game like FarmVille on Facebook is that gaming or social?
- What about when they upload pics and video and comment on other people’s content?
- How about when users open a search browser and then watch playable content within it. (e.g. YouTube video content in the Google.com right in the browser window? or in their email / gchat)
These discrete categories are not discrete and the way we measure needs to catch up to how we use the internet.
