US corporations spend 5.4 bln hours annually on searching and gathering information

67% of professionals now go to the open Web for information, versus 79% in 2001, Outsell says. 15% rely on their corporate intranets (up from 5%). 9% consult their colleagues (up from 5%). Fewer now prefer to get it themselves (51% down from 68%) preferring to rely on regularly scheduled updates, members of their team, or their library. Nowadays professionals spend 53% of their time seeking out information. In 2001 knowledge workers were able to spend 58% of their time analyzing and applying what they had found. Collectively, the time spent gathering and looking for information translates to an estimated 5.4 bln hours per year for US corporations.