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Stats wanted: % local Internet traffic

community-specific content, local email

         

Wilma

8:07 am on Apr 20, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



To what degree is the Internet at resource for geograpcial communities?

Anyone know of sources of stats on percentage of visits to sites with content specific to the user's community or region? Percentage of emails send to someone geographically local? Trends?

For the above, I don't care where packets go or where people host sites. "Local" means content related to the user's community, and emails to people within or near it.

What about geographical distance between email sender and reciever? Between requester and web page? Again I don't care about routing, only the end points.

heini

10:13 am on Apr 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Hi Wilma, looks like a major research project to me. In any case I would be interested in such stats too.
Couldn't find anything on a quick glance though.

I wonder if anybody knows of any resources for that, one should think huge web marketeers should somehow covered that?

Wilma

7:59 am on Apr 23, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



According to the Online Communities study [pewinternet.org] by Pew Internet & American Life (my emphasis):

67% ... of Internet users say the Net helps them get involved in things outside their community, compared to only 9% who say it helps them get involved in things close to home. Urban residents are most likely to say the Internet enables them to get involved with things close to home, with 12% saying it does, while only 6% of rural Internet users say that it does...

For local purposes, the Internet is used most often as an information utility to find out about what is going on nearby.

Breakdown:

  • 41% shopping -- look for info about local stores or merchants
  • 35% info -- news about community or info about local events
  • 30% government -- search for info
  • 24% schools -- ditto

The Internet is only occasionally used as a tool in public deliberation at a local level. About 1 in 9 Internet users (11%) are aware of a debate in their community where the Internet played a major role in organizing citizens to communicate with public officials....

In summary, the Internet plays a fairly prominent role at the local level as an information utility and a comparatively small role in organizing public debate. However, for a subset of Internet users -- the most wired and those who are most involved in using the Internet to be part of an online community -- use of the Internet helps in community participation....

This is the only hard data I found so far. If you find anything else, please post a link.