What are people doing online during the recession?

As we all know the recession has affected advertising spend and many internet advertising agency firms have been hit hard. But how has the credit crunch affected the way people use the internet?

According to a recent study I read web usage by adults increased from 20m in February 2009 to almost 23m in May 2009. Perhaps, this was a result of staying at home more. Given the current economic climate it could also be down to people going online to research more. In this case it could mean looking for money saving ideas and jobs etc.

The property market has been deeply affected by recent events. In August 2008 almost 40,000 adults used the internet to research mortgages. However, due to lowered interest rates this dramatically increased by over 70% by February 2009. Property prices and mortgage rates have been closely followed and widely reported by the media, which has had an effect on the amount of public interest. As Brits and largely an owner occupier nation, we are obsessed by what's going on with our homes value, so it's no surprise that searches would go up.

Newspaper sites have benefited from the recession. Everybody becomes more concerned with current affairs and developments in the economy and this is shown in the stats. According to the report from November last year to May 2009, the number of adults visiting the top 5 news sites jumped from about 11m to 13.5m.

A sector which has experienced a rise in interest during the recession is the travel industry, which saw an increase in people planning holidays of 23%. Due to the governments car scrappage scheme the number of people searching for information on cars, increased by over 70%, to just over 3m.

Overall it's a mixed bag. But in summary more people are using the internet during the recession. More people are searching for news and information on the economy and how to save money.