• GigaOm et al., Monday, August 2, 2010 2:24 PM

What are Americans doing online? Spending nearly a third of their time playing games and using social networks, according to a new survey by Nielsen. Social networking sites and services take up the largest chunk of time, at about 23% of all time spent online, and, as GigaOm notes, "that figure is up sharply from just 16 percent in June 2009."

Online games, meanwhile, account for the next largest block at 10%, up from 9% in the previous survey. "That's great if you are Facebook or social-gaming giant Zynga, but if your business involves email or you happen to be a 'portal' such as Yahoo or MSN, the Nielsen numbers don't have a lot of good news for you," adds GigaOm. Indeed, the survey shows that the amount of time Americans spend on email has dropped by almost a third, to 8% from over 11% last year, and time spent at portal sites fell by nearly 20% compared to the previous year. On mobile, however, email still takes up the majority of time spent, and would account for almost half of the hour, according to Nielsen's survey.

Read the whole story at GigaOm et al. »