Pew Internet Life: WiFi gaining in online use time

Steve Safran February 26th, 2007

The Pew Internet and American Life Project has a new report (PDF) with oodles of good data about people who use WiFi to connect to the web. About 34% of internet users have gone online using WiFi. They use the web differently than those connected by a wire. From the study:

- 72% of wireless users check email on a typical day, compared to 63% of home broadband users and 54% of all internet users.

- WiFi users want more news: 46% get the news on a typical day, compared to 38% of home broadband users and 31% of all internet users.

The study also rightly notes that people generally don’t have WiFi at home without broadband. (You could, I suppose, set up WiFi to a dialup, but what’s the point?) So being able to roam your house with your laptop either changes your behavior (my guess) or the people who set up WiFi have different behaviors than those who don’t set up WiFi. And there’s this note regarding cellphone web access: “25% of internet users say they have a phone that connects to the internet using a wireless network… (of those people) half have used it to get on the internet…” Are you generating content that will make the mobile experience worth their time?