How switched on are uk surfers?

Are UK surfers driven by portals like freeserve?

[engine]

The uk "audience" with internet access continues to grow, according to stats, but, from an internet useage point of view, how sophisticated are the users?
How many users remain locked into freeserve's portal, without realising there is much more outside?
Do these uk surfers use .com portals, directories and SEs, or are they "aware" of many other uk-based search facilities?
Anyone have any thoughts, up-to-date figures and stats?

[NFFC]

Some info here:

[mmxieurope.com ]

[Videoman]

Hi Engine
Never mind the stats- talk to your friends and neighbours who ARENT computer gurus.
My two friends (OK one for cash)are not into Search Engines but use what they are presented with by their ISP home page- none of then realised they could actually set anything as the home page.

If I speak to my more "sophisticated" clients who are more computer minded then they tend to have their favourite SE- Sadly YAHOO in most cases.

If I speak to my neigbours 6 year old daughter .......far more clued up.

Do you agree its is important to be aware of which ISP's are using which SE- (Ink has given me some good work via Freeserve)

[engine]

NFFC, thanks for the link. What about the UK? I've always thought that the US-based figures are tainted by the "more advanced" Internet society in the USA. They tend to embrace technology better than we do here in the UK.

Videoman - I think you've hit the nail on the head. I've spoken to my clients, my friends and colleagues and many simply use the portal supplied. This is a tremendous boon to firms like freeserve with its huge adience. Even some of my more "switched on" clients use the portal they were supplied with, "...because it's easy."

I don't beleive our efforts at SEO are in vain as services like INK will show up in the portals. Perhaps the UK portals will start to generate more traffic for my clients as time passes. How long should they wait?
I also beleive that the huge influence of Yahoo will continue, whether it be UK or .com. In actual fact, we get a good number of referals out of Yahoo UK, unlike any other service in the UK.

The UK has a way to go and the switch by AV to generate traffic for its uk service may take time to bed in. I hope they get traffic as it will benefit me and my clients significantly - I do nto have to "compete" with "big bucks" us-based sites to optimise and position. I suspect that the us-based sites will not spend so much effort in SEO for country-specific services - at least i hope not;)

I do think that it is VERY IMPORTANT to know positioning within the services like INK and which portals are working. This helps me to decide which portals are worth considering for advertising. More work to do - it will never end!