Usage statistics from local search engine Aardvark confirm recent research findings by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) that South African home Internet users make use of the Internet for e-mail and research, rather than for entertainment.
"Aardvark`s search report for November shows 'jobs` and 'chat` at the top of the 10 most searched for words internationally, while travel, jobs, business and health are the most searched categories," says Chris Van Zyl, marketing manager at Internet service provider Intekom, the holding company of Aardvark.
These patterns, according to Van Zyl, can be mainly attributed to the fact that South Africans traditionally investigate holiday destinations and career changes at this time of the year.
These user habits validate PwC`s "Five Country 2000 Consumer Technology Survey" finding that South Africans predominantly use the Internet for information searching, careers, international travel, chat rooms and lifestyle issues.
The fact that South Africans use the Internet more for research than entertainment was the driving force behind the recent Aardvark upgrade to Google search technology, according to Van Zyl.
"Google is recognised worldwide for its superior search facilities and it was for this reason that we opted for this technology, not only to maintain Aardvark`s number one position, but to continue to offer our clients best of breed products.
"Google is also used by international search engine Yahoo. It delivers some of the world`s quickest reaction times to searches and saves time by ranking sites according to their popularity," he adds.
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