Broadband customers are spending more time using sites like Facebook, Twitter and Myspace, if the results of a recent study are anything to go by.

Research conducted by analysts at Nielsen Online revealed social networking and blogging portals are more popular than ever and the duration people will visit such online facilities is up on the same time last year.

It was noted the total minutes broadband users spend updating their accounts and communicating with others is up by 82 per cent on May 2008 - with the average period per person up by 67 per cent.

The survey also found Twitter was the fastest-growing web brand for last month and saw users increase by 1,448 percent year-on-year. Over the last 12 months, unique visits to the micro-blogging site went from 1.2 million per month to 18.2 million.

However, month-on-month figures were noted as beginning to slow and during May, Facebook was listed as the number one choice for global social networking - a title it has now retained for the seventh month in a row.

In other news, Bloomberg reports this week that the latter company has also stated the number of people using its automated advertising system has more than tripled over the past year.

Tim Kendall, Facebook's director of product marketing for monetisation, said it was not just the numbers that were looking promising, but also the "greater diversity of people" using the system.

"Lots of businesses, lots of local businesses finding success," he said. "It's really been a steady, successful growth pattern."

Categories: Broadband, Wireless Broadband

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