Web Usage Survey

Web Usage Survey

The goal of the Web Usage Survey was to get an understanding of how TechSoup users use the Web. The Survey ran on TechSoup from October 3rd to November 7th 2006. There were 1,058 survey respondents.

Highlights

Who took the survey?

As with previous surveys, Executive Directors and IT Managers had the highest participation rates. The vast majority of respondents come from organizations with budgets below $1 Million with 67.9% of participants falling into this category.

Demographics of My TechSoup users seems to be changing

My TechSoup members seem to be trending younger. Over 40% of My TechSoup members that joined within the last 6 months are under 40. This contrasts with My TechSoup members that joined two or more years ago. Of these respondents only 22% are under 40.

Most popular form of Web usage is using a search engine to find information.

A full 96.4% of survey respondents indicated that they use a search engine to find information. The other most popular usage reported was researching a product or service before buying it and checking news sites.

TechSoup users taking advantage of newer technologies

TechSoup users are taking advantage of newer technologies. A full third of My TechSoup users participate in online groups. 16% use social networking sites and 15% subscribe to an RSS feed. And over 15% of survey respondents write their own blog. This blogging number is considerably higher than the national average. According to the Pew Internet Project 8% of Internet users create or write their own blog.

Google is the most popular Web site

In an open ended question, Google was the most popular Web site by survey respondents. Yahoo and Amazon respectively were the 2nd and 3rd most popular Web sites.

You like us….you really really like us

Survey respondents overwhelmingly chose TechSoup as their favorite nonprofit Web site. United Way and Idealist rounded out the top 3 favorite Web sites respectively.

CNET is the most popular Technology news site.

Survey respondents reported that CNET was their favorite Web site with PC Magazine and PC World rounding out the Top 3. It is also interesting to note that 13.8% of respondents reported that they don't use any Technology news sites.