back to article Brits look at Google and Facebook every 210 seconds, says survey

Ad companies Facebook and Google slurp one in every 3½ minutes that Britons spend online, according to a survey. This, says audience metrics company Verto Analytics, accounts for 17 per cent of British adults’ time online, the equivalent of 42.7 million days a month across Google, YouTube and Gmail. Similarly, Facebook-owned …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    not all of us do it...

    As I have never even seen the FB home page and only use google as a last resort then some people must really be addicted.

    Social Media is very addictive. Possibly a worse epidemic that drugs. Just say no to it all and live a healthier and less stressfull life.

    Founder member of SMR - social media refuseniks.

    1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: not all of us do it...

      Hmm, another one who seems to be reading over my shoulder then posting before I do.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Childcatcher

      Re: not all of us do it...

      Why AC?

      Social Media is very addictive. Possibly a worse epidemic that drugs. Just say no to it all and live a healthier and less stressfull life.

      The world turns and things change. An inability to change is a bit crap but on the other hand one should not blindly descend into the dark.

      Reason beats bollocks any day.

      1. P. Lee

        Re: not all of us do it...

        >Reason beats bollocks any day.

        Maths beats them all. "On average look at FB & Google..."

        For some value of "average."

        Also, does "looking at google" include reading your email? Do they include google ads served on other websites?

        Are they really complaining that people are reading email and FB updates rather than watching *American* "journalism"?

        Pots and Kettles, though I must admit ditching the journalists is an easier habit to break.

  2. agurney

    I don't look at Google and Facebook every 210 seconds, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bit of tracking information that they collect no matter where I go [despite ad blockers, noscript, Tor, and so on].

  3. Dwarf

    The only face books I've got are those of family photos from various holidays.

    Since many have their default browser page set to Google, this doesn't mean that they then do a search, often people will use links or just type the url of the company they want to see.

    Sounds like its meaningless metric day - particularly if you consider the Microsoft "we all love telemetry" article too.

    1. Wensleydale Cheese
      Unhappy

      "Since many have their default browser page set to Google, this doesn't mean that they then do a search, often people will use links or just type the url of the company they want to see."

      I've seen this in action. When making an enquiry at my local council offices, I had expected them to use some form of internal address book, but no, it was off into Google to look up the contact details of the relevant department.

      And yes, where the URL was known, that went into Google rather than the URL bar...

      1. handleoclast

        Googling a URL

        And yes, where the URL was known, that went into Google rather than the URL bar...

        There can be semi-legitimate reasons for doing this. It may make that particular URL more likely to be favoured in search results. So the thinking goes amongst off-white hat SEO types.

        1. VinceH

          Re: Googling a URL

          I don't buy that for one second. It's more likely they put the URL in the Google search box for the same reason I see other people do the same - including important sites like their banks etc: Because they don't know any better.

  4. Aladdin Sane
    Joke

    geeks who want algorithms to replace humans

    Who doesn't want this?

    People; What a bunch of bastards.

  5. Zog_but_not_the_first
    Facepalm

    In other news...

    UK productivity at record low.

    Do some work!

  6. Teiwaz

    I only visit a handful of sites regularly.

    Yet I still end up in a search page - due in part to my clumsy fingers and to the modern browsers insistence on moving search to the URL whether I want to use it for that or not...

    Please don't Feed the Search Giants....

    1. John Miles

      Re: I only visit a handful of sites regularly.

      you can disable searching from address bar - e.g. for Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/search-web-address-bar

    2. Pascal Monett Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: Please don't Feed the Search Giants

      There's this thing called "bookmark". I hear it takes you directly to whatever page you wish.

      You might want to look into that, I've heard it works quite well and does not require any search engine.

  7. Kevin Johnston

    Another outlier here...

    My relatives are very grumpy about me not using Facebook to keep in touch and doubly grumpy when they wish me Happy Birthday when they should know full well it is not my birthday. When I set up my Facebook account I accidentally put a lot of incorrect data in there which causes confusion to everyone except me.

    Really sad thing is I can't get back in to fix it as I have forgotten what DoB I entered which it wants to validate that I am me...so sad, never mind, must stop laughing

    1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

      Re: Another outlier here...

      @Kevin Johnston

      ...and doubly grumpy when they wish me Happy Birthday when they should know full well it is not my birthday. When I set up my Facebook account I accidentally put a lot of incorrect data in there which causes confusion to everyone except me.

      Really sad thing is I can't get back in to fix it as I have forgotten what DoB I entered which it wants to validate that I am me...

      Shirley, the answer to your predicament is when your relatives wish you a Happy Birthday when it is not?

      1. Aladdin Sane

        Re: Another outlier here...

        It's more fun to regularly change your registered birthday to one in the not too distant future and see who outside of your relatives pick up on the fact they've wished you happy birthday once a month for the past two years.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why every 210 seconds? Is that so you get your *cough* 3 minute break.

    1. kain preacher

      Only way not to be tracked by face book is to log out.

      1. Pompous Git Silver badge
        FAIL

        "Only way not to be tracked by face book is to log out."
        Nonsense! Since I never log in, I can never log out. So how can Farcebook trace me?

      2. VinceH

        "Only way not to be tracked by face book is to log out."

        And make sure their scripts on other sites don't run, and cookies not saved.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Addiction, serious addiction.

    Social media is addictive, very, very addictive. Like any addiction, anyone can be hoodwink into it and not able to control themselves. It's a powerful as any substance, you get up, you check your status. You check it a couple of time before you leave home. You spend your entire commute to work, checking up on others and posting. Throughout the day you're chatting to people and checking more posts. The commute home, same again. Then throughout the evening you check in an out. I don't smoke, drink, never so much as done a puff of a "Moroccan Woodbine" in my life but social networking got me.

    As a semi-pro photographer you get sucked into a world of constantly thinking you have to out-do people with better and better pictures, so all you do is constantly check on your progress, your likes and everything you do is shot to try to out-do others. After about a year of it and realising what it was doing to me, I quit all social media full stop and stopped taking photos in order to "detox". Then I started taking pictures and I made myself some rules if I was going back to social media and I stick to them, very strict rules about how much I'm allowed to use it. 6 months later and I'm much better. I don't want to quit completely, I have some very good photographer friends on there, we sometimes meet up and it's good but like anything you need to control it and use it as a tool.

    I'm a strong person, I've never been tempted to try substance abuse but social media was my nasty vice, too easy to use and too easy to abuse. I would strongly advise anyone to think twice about using social media, if you have no real reason to be on there, keep off. If you're a creative and you wish to share and meet other creatives, fine but be very strict with yourself and use it as a tool, don't let it use you.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Addiction, serious addiction.

      Although I recognise your description of your experience, I'm not sure whether "addiction" is the right word.

      I've never used Facebook but I have occasionally found myself compulsively checking some web site much more frequently than I ought to. Usually it's a bug tracker or a testbot dashboard or something like that. But it's a temporary thing - it just lasts until I find some energy and something more interesting to do - and when that happens there's nothing remotely analogous to withdrawal symptoms.

      My daughter is perhaps "addicted" to watching crap on YouTube, but, again, I don't think there are any withdrawal symptoms when she does manage to do something else. On the contrary, she seems much happier when she manages to drag herself away from the screen.

      I agree that there's something wrong. But perhaps these things are a symptom, not a cause. In which case, the cause is... lack of work? lack of discipline? lack of real communication?

  10. VinceH
    Unhappy

    Optional

    "Ad companies Facebook and Google slurp one in every 3½ minutes that Britons spend online, according to a survey."

    That's certainly not true for me - I have a Facebook account (created a couple of years after deleting my original account, just as an experiment) but I never log in. And my default search engine isn't Google.

    However, the people around me easily make up for my attempts at bringing that average down. Some a lot more than others.

  11. nickx89

    Are we going to see clash of advertisers?

    Both the companies have monopolized the online ad networks while disguising themselves as a social media & search engine. It's not far enough that we'd be seeing huge conflict between the advertisers for the place.

  12. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
  13. TheElder

    I have some books with faces on them.

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