Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Social Networking Passes Porn As Top Search Category

Reuters: In his new book, "Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why it Matters," Hitwise General Manager of Global Research Bill Tancer reveals that social networking sites are the Internet's biggest attraction, surpassing pornography and underscoring a seismic shift in the way people communicate. "There are some patterns to our Internet use that we tend to repeat very specifically and predictably, from diet searches, to prom dresses, to what we do around the holidays," Tancer told Reuters. He conducted his research by analyzing consumers' searching habits

One of the biggest shifts in Web use he found over the past decade has been the fall of interest in pornography or adult entertainment sites. Searching for porn has dropped to about 10% of searches from 20% a decade ago. "As social networking traffic has increased, visits to porn sites have decreased," Tancer said, adding that 18- to 24-year-olds were searching less for porn. "My theory is that young users spend so much time on social networks that they don't have time to look at adult sites."


Yeah, it just means people have met their porn needs on social networks
Our world exists in 3 concurrent dimensions - physical, digital and virtual.
I believe that:
Physical is the actual real world, you know, the one you used to get up in the morning for.
Digital is the actualisation of retrieving and finding any type of data or content on the net.
and virtual is the social interaction that happens on the internet. It's certainly not real world, and it's an extension of existing relationships to those who know you, and a highlight reel to those who don't.

I definitely do not think that users don't have time to search for porn. Multitasking, tabbed browsers and the unmitigated need for teenage boys and the general male population to find porn is and always be prevalent.
Seen mySpace in the last 6 years?
Have you seen the pictures of women on there? Porn/slut central, proof here and here (I don't think these are worksafe). Tila Tequila. Remember her? I think her biggest problem in life is working out whether she is gay, straight or bi and her next greatest issue is what heels to wear with her bikini.
Case closed. Porn lives.

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