Social networks more popular than porn, research says

A Reuters article published today reports that Bill Tancer, a global research manager at Hitwise, has analyzed data from more than 10 million Internet users to determine some of the most relevant Web search trends. In addition to finding intricacies in people's behaviors related to natural disasters, fears and buying behaviors, Tancer states that searching for social networking sites has overtaken the search for Internet porn. According to the article:

"Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise, an Internet tracking company, said one of the major shifts in Internet use in the past decade had been the fall off in interest in pornography or adult entertainment sites.

He said surfing for porn had dropped to about 10 percent of searches from 20 percent a decade ago, and the hottest Internet searches now are for social networking sites.

'As social networking traffic has increased, visits to porn sites have decreased,' said Tancer, indicated that the 18-24 year old age group particularly was 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.'

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