The State of The Internet 2011

Don’t know about you, but for many people – me included – over the past few years, the Internet has become such an integral part of our lives, it’s impossible to imagine our daily work and leisure-time without it.

We use it to search for information, check our email, buy the things we want, talk to our friends on Facebook and Twitter, even to make phone calls, and a hundred other ways to make money, spend money and have fun.

And because the Internet has become so useful to us all, in our busy, modern lives, it has grown incredibly quickly.  It just keeps getting bigger and better at delivering on the reason why it came into existence in the first place, and that’s its ability to help us communicate and learn. Two things, which it turns out, are at the heart of Social Networking and therefore online marketing too.

This new infographic from www.onlineschools.org shows us just how quickly the Internet has grown, as well as some of the most popular services, plus loads more details, country by country – the rate new users and websites are being added, who’s winning the race for Internet domination, what different ages, genders and what types of activity we use the Internet for.

Did you know, for instance, 23% of time spent on the Internet is used for Social Networking, now the biggest single use of the Internet?  Or that 3 out of 5 searches in the US today are on Google, and that women prefer Bing to Google, although men prefer Google to Bing, both by substantial margins?  And, contrary to wide-spread belief, the biggest single group of users are in the 18-33 range and majority of people using Social Networking sites are 35 and over.

Bottom line?  Most everyone now uses the Internet for search, social media, reference information and e-commerce. Almost everyone is there, if you know where to look, and they’re not going away any time soon. The Internet will continue to grow at this incredible pace for many, many decades to come.

Customer advantage is being driven by this medium and the Social Networking effect. Those who see that now, and take advantage, will be the opinion leaders of the future. And the possibilities for the future are quite simply endless.

The prospects for today are very real too. All that’s needed is to get a good grasp of the concept, on how it all works, how to communicate in this environment and then make it happen.  You don’t even need a substantial budget to start.  It literally can be done on a shoestring.

The sheer numbers of people shown in this graphic should be enough evidence to convince you, we all have the same common opportunity, right now, to become uncommon. What you do with this knowledge will have a profound impact on your future and the future of those who share this opportunity with you.