Brits' online habits are changing

Britons spent 884 million hours online in April 2010 compared to 536 million hours in April 2007 - a rise of 65 per cent, research from the UK Online Measurement Company (UKOM) has found.

However, the kind of things we do online have changed dramatically, according to the report, with a surge in time spent on social networking and much less time spent using instant-messaging software.

The drop in the time spent on instant messaging was linked to the rise of social networking, though the report notes that social networks such as Facebook haven't had an impact on the amount of time we spend on emails.

We spend 6.9 per cent of our online time on games in 2010, compared to 5.9 per cent in 2007. Our use of news websites has increased by 84 per cent over the last three years, though we spend six per cent less time looking at auction and classified websites.

UKOM's Alex Burmaster said: "Despite the large increase in the amount of time people spend online and the increasing proliferation of websites and online services, one thing has remained constant and that is the bulk of time accounted for by communicating, networking and playing games.

"These are the pillars on which the internet as a heavily used medium are built," he continued.

How has the way you use the web changed over the years? Tell us in the Comments section below.