• by Dave Jackson , June 23, 2009

We all are probably somewhat overwhelmed by the number of studies defining consumer behavior on the Web. However, just this month two reports were published, that when looked at together, tell a compelling story about how online behavior has changed pretty dramatically within the last year.

The first report I noted was a release from The Nielsen Company on Online Video Usage. It stated that viewers of online video increased 12.8% in May vs. last year. However, over the same time, total streams increased by 34.8% and time spent per viewer increased by 48.9% That is a pretty powerful statement on the popularity of online video: more users, watching more videos, more often. This corroborates with a comScore report published in February that also identified the growing video usage trend.

The second report was on home broadband adoption, issued by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. A key finding noted that in April of this year, broadband penetration increased to 63% of American adults, after holding steady between 54%-57% over the last year. That jump in adoption was counter to the downward trends in other parts of the economy over the same time.

Because we are in the business, and have been using broadband for years, we tend to overlook the dramatic impact it provides. But broadband changes everything for consumers.

We see a noticeable trend when consumers use broadband. First, their use of video increases significantly, as noted above. But additionally, it frees them to create, or curate, their own particular Web experience based on their unique interests.

Broadband frees them from an all-in-one starting & content experience. Rather, through search, they are able to find sites that meet their particular interests and bookmark them. Then they use that bookmarking tool to drive their content experiences. This means that a site on the "long tail" of the Web can be just as powerful and relevant to that consumer as a large destination site.

The consumer's online video behavior continues to grow significantly, and while still relatively small in terms of total TV viewing time, it is one of the few strong growth areas for marketers to connect with consumers.