Posted: 02nd Jan, 2004 By: MarkJ
New research from Nielsen//NetRatings has suggested that 67% of surfers access the Internet using a non-browser application (media players etc.):
The Internet is increasingly working its way into applications outside the browser, blurring the lines between the desktop and the online world, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. "With 76 percent of Web surfers using Internet applications, functionality has grown beyond the browser to become a fundamental piece of the overall desktop," said Nielsen//NetRatings analyst Abha Bhagat, in a statement.
The most popular application in December was Windows Media Player, reaching 34 percent of Internet users; AOL Instant Messenger, reaching 20.27 percent; RealNetworks' players, reaching 19.76 percent; MSN Messenger, reaching 19.31 percent; and Yahoo Messenger, reaching 12.26 percent.To date the humble web browser still remains the best tool for surfing website pages, although the above statistics do hint at the potential for a more integrated future.
What would this mean for ordinary web pages though? Could such a thing restrict rather than aid the online world? Perhaps predicting the demise of our beloved www browsing software is still too far fetched. More @
ZDNet.