Survey digs into online habits of Indian netizens

Yahoo for mail, Indiatimes for Whatever! Survey digs into online habits of Indian netizens :: exchange4media izone - a resource on new media: "When it comes to online preferences, Indian netizens like to go with the best. In a survey carried out by online research agency JuxtConsult, Yahoo India came out as the clear winner as the most preferred communication portal for its e-mail and chat services.

In both e-mail and instant messaging Yahoo India is the leader with 38 per cent user share, whereas Rediff and Hotmail follow with 21 per cent and 18 per cent of the pie, respectively. Indiatimes occupies the fourth position, while new entrant Gmail from Google, which is doling out accounts through invitations only, has already occupied 5 per cent user base among the domestic netizens.

For news and information, Indian netizens log on to Indiatimes, apparently for its flagship news portal Timesofindia.com. Indiatimes is the front-runner with 30 per cent share, be it general, sports or event-related news. But one thing the portal may not digest is that it stands at an ignoble fourth position when it comes to search for adult content, ahead of many porn websites, including Playboy.

The runner up in the news and information category is the NDTV portal. The website has grown tremendously within a short span of time after the launch of the channel in 2003. It has also been ranked as one of the best foreign news websites by Forbes magazine in the past. Rediff, though famous for breaking news, has to be satisfied with the third position with a 10 per cent user share.

When it comes to games and the download category, music portal Raaga.com leads the way with 18 per cent of netizens opting for it. Yahoo is placed second with 10 per cent using it for music and games.

Indian netizens have also the same preference when its come to searching for information. Googlers are well ahead of Yahooligans with an indomitable 75 per cent net population preferring Google over Yahoo, which has a meagre 6 per cent share.

The most preferred activity on the net remains personal emailing with 96 per cent netizens opting for it. While 72 per cent people log on to the net for news and events, 63 per cent surf the net for career enhancement learning, according to the survey.

The survey, conducted by JuxtConsult in 10 cities across the country with a sample size of 30,000, throws some light on the online behaviour of Indian netizens. "