Brits Look at Google and Facebook Every 210 Seconds, Says Survey

Ad companies Facebook and Google slurp one in every three and a half minutes that Britons spend online, according to a survey. From a report: 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 sites, including the ad-driven data-mining website itself, Instagram and WhatsApp, account for 11 per cent of time online, or a relatively paltry 28.4 million days. "Google and Facebook's share of internet time and ad revenue is staggering considering the hundreds of thousands of websites that exist," said Hannu Verkasalo, CEO of Verto Analytics, in a canned statement. The Verto survey also found that of the top 10 websites used in the UK, the sole British one was the BBC. Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, "Oath" (the new name for the merged Yahoo-AOL beastie), eBay and Twitter were the others, along with Activision Blizzard.

Google I get

[nospam007]

I am curious myself but FaceBook? It only has stuff I don't want nor need to know, for example the guy who had the locker beside mine 20 years ago got a new car.

Re:

[jellomizer]

They needed an other source to make their data look interesting and add an additional buzzword for the search optimization.
Google and Gmail makes sense, as there is a lot of serious needs for this. I am getting for Facebook, I expect much of that is for facebook messenger.
Because IRC, AOLIM, are out of date. Because... Reasons?

Re:

[wonkey_monkey]

It only has stuff I don't want nor need to know

Well, maybe they also looked at what other people who aren't you did.

What the fuck?

[Known Nutter]

What the fuck does this even mean?

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

Derp. Makes no sense out of context.

Re:

[ITRambo]

The headline is clickbait. It is misleading, as many people stay logged into Facebook while doing other things.

Re:

[DogDude]

The ad companies know when you're active or not. The mouse moves or your finger moves. Really simple.

Re:What the ?

[Mr D from 63]

But how often do Google and Facebook look at the Brits?

Re:

[__aaclcg7560]

From what I read in "Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley" [slashdot.org] by Antonio Garcia Martinez, Facebook takes its own data and combines it with third-party data to create profiles on every user, whether logged in or anonymous. A researcher could get their own source of data and then cross-reference it with third-party data to figure out something similar.

Rainy Days

[sqorbit]

I read somewhere that 106.5 days of the year London has rain. That means that approximately 29% of the year Brits in London are staring at rain. This adds two useless and pointless facts about Brits on slashdot today.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Note to self: Verto Analytics are idiots, don't trust their analytics.

BS Stats

[avandesande]

Yeah I have a google tab open. Am I looking at it? No.

Re:

[DogDude]

The ad companies know when you're active or not. The mouse moves or your finger moves. Really simple.

Re:

[avandesande]

Yeah and they report something else. They have been padding stats since forever.

They look at FB and G in disgust

[WillAffleckUW]

Just because they look at it, doesn't mean they like it.

Might even look at it in horror, or amazement that this dreck exists.

Facebook?

[93 Escort Wagon]

I thought the Brits had their own social networks - FriendFace and Jitter?

Medical Problems?

[Neuronwelder]

Gee.. Their necks must be awfully stiff at the end of the day. Looking down all the time.

Re:

[Oswald McWeany]

Gee.. Their necks must be awfully stiff at the end of the day. Looking down all the time.

That's why there is free health-care to take care of all the bad necks.

Re:

[Neuronwelder]

Yea, lucky them!!

Pfft, that's nothing!

[ToTheStars]

I look at Slashdot at least once every twenty seconds!

Re:

[avandesande]

websites have been lying and counting auto reload stats as impressions since the 90s

Copenhagen interpretation

[Idisagree]

Perhaps everyone is an unwilling participant in a great Schrödinger experiment...

This means we must be compelled to check every 210 seconds to see if Facebook is either dead or alive.

So far its been 426,470,400 seconds and (based on the survey stats) we've checked it over 2 million times but the damn thing wont die yet!!!

The experiment continues in 210 seconds, perhaps this time we will be lucky? ..