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From privacy to spamming, Web survey probes users' concerns
December 11, 1996
Web posted at: 6:30 p.m. ESTATLANTA (CNN) -- Censorship, privacy and navigation are the top concerns of World Wide Web users, according to a new Web survey. Most respondents added that they hate junk e-mail and are unwilling to pay fees to access Web documents.
More than a third said they are increasingly surfing the Web instead of tuning in to television.
The study was conducted by the Graphics, Visualization, & Usability (GVU) Center at Georgia Tech. Unlike some surveys, GVU's WWW 6th User Survey was conducted solely over the Web, from October 10 to November 10. Responses were collected from more than 15,000 users.
GVU has conducted six surveys since January 1994. The center conducts the surveys every six months and solicits participants by posting announcements in newsgroups, on various Web sites and through other online media.
According to the survey results, respondents put a high value on the anonymous nature of the Web. Most said censorship was the single most important issue facing the Web, followed by privacy and navigation. But women predominantly ranked privacy over censorship, and Europeans ranked navigation ahead of censorship as the second most important issue.
Respondents also emphasized that the Internet needs laws to protect privacy. Junk e-mailers -- otherwise known as "spammers" -- continue to irk users. But nearly everyone polled opposed regulations to outlaw spamming, suggesting the Web community tolerates spammers' freedom.
The study also prodded users as to what bugs them the most about the Web. The response:
- Slowness (76.5 percent)
- Difficulty of finding information (34 percent)
- Organizing collected information (31 percent)
- Finding Web pages already visited (13.4 percent)
More than two-thirds reported that they were not willing to pay fees for accessing Web materials. The majority said they use the Web from home, with one in five respondents saying they log on for more than 20 hours a week.
The average age among respondents in the latest test was 34.9, a number that has steadily increased since an October 1995 GVU survey. Women users were slightly younger than men.
The gender ratio was 31.4 percent women to 68.6 percent men. Though there is still a large gender gap, the margin has significantly narrowed since January 1994 when GVU found that 95 percent of respondents were male.
The web survey also found:
- 33.5 percent said they have provided false information when registering for a Web site.
- 37 percent claim they use the Web instead of watching TV.
- More than half use 28.8 K modems, while 19.7 percent still have 14.4 K modems.
- 63.6 percent access the Web from home.
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