• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, January 10, 2008

On a typical day near the end of 2007, the share of Web users going to video-sharing sites like YouTube was nearly twice as large as it was in 2006, according to new data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

What's more, in December, nearly half (48%) of Internet users reported visiting a video-sharing site, up from 33% at the end of 2006.

About 15% of respondents said they had used a video-sharing site "yesterday"--the day before they were contacted for the survey. A year ago, 8% had visited such a site "yesterday." Thus, on an average day, the number of users of video sites nearly doubled from the end of 2006 to the end of 2007.

These results come from a survey of 2,054 American adults conducted between Oct. 24 and Dec. 2, 2007.

"The dramatic growth in the population using video-sharing sites is tied at least in part to the popularity of such sites among men, younger adults (those under age 30), and college graduates," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. "Nearly a third of wired young adults (30%) watch a video on a site like YouTube on a typical day, and fully a fifth of online men (20%) do the same."

At the same time, growth in daily traffic surged among some other demographic groups. Among women, for example, use on an average day jumped from 5% to 11%--or an increase of 120%. And among those ages 30 to 49, use on a typical day increased from 7% to 14%--an increase of 100%.

Growth in traffic is also linked to the spread of broadband connections. In Pew's December 2006 survey, 45% of all American adults said they had broadband at home, and in this most recent survey, 54% of all adults said they had high-speed connections at home.