As of 2007, online users are spending nearly half of their time online on content, a 37 percent increase from four years ago, the Online Publisher Association announced Monday in its four-year analysis of its Internet Activity Index.

The index breaks down time spent on e-commerce, communications, content and search.

"When the OPA created the IAI, our goal was to provide a reliable, ongoing measure of the time being spent with key online activities. For the last four years, the IAI has identified important trends in Web use and added to our understanding of consumer engagement online,” said OPA president Pam Horan. “As seen by Nielsen//NetRatings' recent introduction of the 'Total Minutes' metric, time spent helps to define engagement and serves as a valuable supplement to other key measures."

According to the Internet Activity Index, content made up 47 percent of overall time when consumers are online in 2007, a 37 percent share gain compared with four years ago. Communications represented 33 percent of the Internet time this year, declining from 46 percent in 2003. Commerce accounted for 15 percent. Search, making up only 5 percent of users' time online, has a dramatic share gain of 35 percent from four years ago.

"The IAI has identified a very significant and sustained trend in where consumers are spending their online time. The index indicates that, over the last four years, the primary role of the Internet has shifted from communications to content," Horan said.

The increase in content's share of time has been growing steadily in the last four years - up 10 percent from 2003 to 2004, remaining static between 2004 and 2005, increasing 13 percent from 2005 to 2006 and another 13 percent from 2006 to 2007.

“The dominant role of content is driven by several important factors. The first is the online transition of traditionally offline activities, such as getting news, finding entertainment information or checking the weather. Quality content sites see a consistent pattern - major news drives traffic spikes, but traffic remains consistently higher even after the event. Major news events such as Hurricane Katrina and high profile seasonal events such as the NCAA Final Four Basketball tournament are clearly driving consumers to engage more deeply with online content,” Horan stated.

“New online features and communities are also leading consumers to spend a larger share of their online time with content. Consumers spend considerable time with social networking sites, which serve not only as places of content but are also increasingly important communications vehicles."