The number of people using the Internet at work grew 17% in August compared to one year ago. Some 46 million Americans booted up, the highest peak in use since January 200 when measurement taking began.
Female office workers were the primary drivers of traffic growth, according to the report by Nielsen/NetRatings. That group grew 23% year-over-year to 20.4 million, outpacing the growth of men, which grew 12% to about 25.3 million.
However, women are not as dutiful surfers as men are. Men spent more time, accessed more sessions and viewed more pages than women spending about 31 hours in August compared to 27 hours for their female counterparts. Men viewed 1,900 pages while women looked over fewer than 1,700, the report said.
Online usage begins the work day at about 8 a.m. and drops off around 4 p.m. Peak hours are between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. Prime time at home surfing hours peak at 8 p.m.
Among the top ten brands, Yahoo! led the pack with 78,427 unique viewers that spent an average 2 hours and 16 minutes online during the month. MSN followed with 73,854 viewers and 1 hour and 37 minutes. AOL ranked fourth on the list with 60,475 and 35 minutes.
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