
      POLLING  THE  WEB


   The WEB is a collection of Internet sites which provide both text and
   graphical information. The WWW or World Wide Web is one of the fastest
   growing parts of the Internet.  This growth covers tools, homepages and
   visitors.  Len Bayles, who is the author and creator of the following
   poll on suggestive demographics of the WWW has allowed us to present his
   results posted to the Internet world on Oct. 13, 1994. This is his
   report. lbl


   On July 21, 1994 I posted a poll to comp.infosystems.www.users ( a
   news group or conference) which I reposted three more times to the same
   group. During the one month period I received 332 replies to the poll.
   In the 332 replies I had 3 duplicate respondents.  Here are the results
   of that poll.

   1.  Software used to access W3, for example, Mosaic, Lynx, Cello, etc.

     Mosaic    	          	            	  85.71%
     Lynx        				   6.99%
     MacWeb     				   3.65%
     Cello      				   1.22%
     Other      				   2.43%

     * Users having access to multiple software packages represent 36.17% of
     the sample.

   2.  Platform used, i.e., Unix/XWindows, MSDOS/Windows, Macintosh.

     Unix                  	    62.31%
     MSDOS/Windows  		    19.45%
     Macintosh       		    15.81%
     Other              	     2.43%
     Users who have access
        to multiple OS's            26.14%

   3.  Does your software-system display graphics?

     Yes   			    95.73%
     No    			     4.27%

     Some users commented that they disable graphics due to speed
     considerations.

   4.  Can you utilize sound files?

     Yes  			    67.17%
     No   			    32.83%


   5.  How many hours per week do you spend accessing W3?

     1 to  5 hours       	    51.53%
     6 to 10 hours       	    28.53%
     11 to 15 hours        	     6.13%
     16 to 20 hours        	     7.98%
     21 to 25 hours                  1.84%
     26 to 30 hours      	     1.23%
     31 to 35 hours                   .31%
     36 hours or more                2.45%


   6.  What is your primary motivation for using W3, i.e. business,
     pleasure, scientific?

     Business                       46.34%
     Pleasure                       37.20%
     Information gathering          16.46%

     Most of the responses fell into the above three categories.  I
     categorized the results from the primary answer only. A large
     percentage of the respondents use the Web for a combination of the
     above reasons.


   7.  What is the bandwidth  of your connection, i.e., dialup 14.400, 56Kb,
       T1?

     T1 or faster                   33.13%
     56k to less than T1       	    22.80%
     14.4 to 28.8                   20.67%
     9600                            1.82%
     2400                            1.82%
     Unknown                        19.76%

     I suspect that most of the "Unknown" group fall into the T1 or faster
     category. Many of the respondents in this category said that they were on a
     network but were unsure of the speed but said it was fast.


   8.  Are you a W3 provider?

     Yes                            62.33%
     No   			    37.67%

    I think this was a confusing question.  Many responded "yes" to this
    that were not providers as such.  It seems that many accounts today let
    you have your own personal home page. While this does not make you a
    "NCSA" it does allow for the average user to look like the big guys.

    Although the following two questions were optional, most did respond to
    them.


   9. Age

     16 to 20          		     9.15%
     21 to 25        		    26.76%
     26 to 30         		    22.54%
     31 to 35         		    12.32%
     36 to 40         		    15.49%
     41 to 45                        5.63%
     46 to 50          		     4.93%
     51 to 55          		     2.11%
     56 an up                        1.06%

     As a side note,  I did get one answer that said "as old as dirt."  I
     was unable to place this in the above categories, but it was worth
     mentioning.


   10. Sex

     Male       		    87.19%
     Female    			    12.81%

   The general comments were very interesting.  If anyone is interested
   in seeing them please Email me.  I will be compiling a file containing
   them in the near future. Please feel free to mail me with any comments
   or questions about the poll.  I would like to do this again in six months.
   If you have suggestions for new or re-worded questions please let me know.

   Len Bayles  len@yar.cusa.com

