Used to be that people went online to do searches and check their e-mail. New data from Nielsen Online shows that in the last year, social network use and blogging have wedged themselves in between the two, bumping e-mail down to the fifth most popular task online. Overall, time spent on social network and blogging is growing three times as quickly as Internet use at large.

As eMarketer notes, this probably won't ignite a re-alignment of advertising dollars; social network users are notoriously fickle about clicking on ads, and even for those who do, buying something is rarely the outcome. E-mail marketing, by contrast, is considered very effective

Source: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/chris-dannen/techwatch/six-coolest-things-online-week?#

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