The British public love the Internet. In that respect they’re no different to any other countries in the world with the web now available to more people than ever before and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is persisting with his goal of “bringing the Internet to the world” in the coming years so that even the poorest parts of our planet can access the Internet.
It has become a global sensation, the kind of thing that has changed the way we do…well, everything. We don’t go to the dictionary for definitions of words any more, we go online. We don’t ask our friends or family questions anymore, we go on Google. Some people don’t even watch television on their actual television channels, they stream it off the web despite the likes of Sky providing hundreds of channels.
We all use the Internet for different things of course, with everyone having their own preferences and interests. Some use the web for the sole purpose of research, others use it several times an hour using a variety of mobile devices like smartphones, tablets and laptops which have helped us to get online anytime, anywhere through Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity (even 4G in some cases, a connection that is becoming widely available across the UK, particularly in the major cities like Manchester and London depending on your network).
So what are the Brits using the Internet for? We’ve already covered the fact that we all have our own preferences, but we’re not all completely different, there are plenty of obvious trends and favourites out there.
While they don’t occupy the top ten positions, the majority of sites visited fall under the entertainment categories. Websites like Netflix help to satisfy the craving for online entertainment with people wanting to stream shows like Breaking Bad, House of Cards and other popular online series. Gaming sites are also incredibly popular with the likes of www.greatbritishbingo.co.uk a popular review site listing all of the online bingo websites which have exploded in popularity in the past few years.
Rather unsurprisingly, the majority of the top ten most-visited websites from users in the UK according to an Alexa study, are resources and social networking sites. Predicatably Google comes out on top with its .co.uk domain leading the way – Google.com is actually third on the list showing that users don’t really have a preference in localised or generalised searching, they just use the search engine.
Second on the list is Facebook with the other major social network, Twitter, in tenth. YouTube is in fourth place on the list showing that insatiable appetite for entertainment; while online retailers Amazon and eBay occupy fifth and sixth place respectably. Completing the top ten are the BBC in seventh, Yahoo! in eighth, and Wikipedia in ninth.
Outside the top ten we see entertaining sites such as The Lad Bible which features funny video clips, images and stories which are frequently shared on the web, along with newspaper websites including The Guardian and the Daily Mail.
