The survey underlined the importance of online information in driving purchase decisions while revealing the power of the 9% of web users who produce 80% of all user-generated content.

Here are some survey insights about the Internet’s influence:

• The web is the #2 resource for customer support information, after user manuals. It ranks ahead of calling the manufacturer or asking a dealer.
• Website categories that get the most daily usage are search, social communities like MySpace and Facebook, general news websites like CNN.com and NYTimes.com, and online banking.
• The websites that Americans value most are (in order), Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Facebook.
• Young people (age 22 and under) are much noisier online than their elders. They account for about half of all the content and comments posted online.
• Facebook appears to be ahead of MySpace in terms of number of users in the US, and perceived value of the site.
• Despite the publicity, the community sites SecondLife and Twitter reach only a few percent of US Internet users.

[Download the full report]

Word of mouth tops online reviews as purchase influencer, survey finds is a post from: The Inquisitr