• by January 17, 2001

The amount of time we spend online may be leading us (and our target audiences) to see Web surfing not as a special occasion, but as a regular activity from which to take breaks during the holidays and other non-work days.

The Internet ratings report for the month of December 2000 from Nielsen//NetRatings, reveals that Web users have been steadily spending less time surfing the Internet at-home and at-work in the past few months. The average time spent per person online declined from 17.5 in October 2000 to 14.9 hours in December.

Web usage dropped across the board with page views declining more than 17%; the number of unique sites visited per month fell 15% from 20 to 17 sites, and the number of surfing sessions per month decreased 15% from 33 to 28 sessions.

As Sean Kaldor, VP of eCommerce at NetRatings explained, "Vacation time from work combined with family events and travel were the likely drivers of the decrease in Web usage in December." In 1999, however, this was not the case. Online time did not drop off in December or last year, but rather increased slightly. This suggests that as early as a year ago, people spent more of their vacation and down time online.

As CNET.com put it, "Whereas people might have seen the Internet as an exciting activity in years past, some now may be viewing it with less enthusiasm."