A wiser Internet? By JACK KAPICA Globe and Mail Update (Sep 20) More older Canadians are using the Internet. Report from Ipsos-Reid found that "60 per cent of people 55 years of ago and older have Internet access" compared to 48% last year. Their use of the Internet for e-commerce activity is not as developed as with younger users. Only 41 % over 55 use online banking or shop online.
Canadian kids show balance in Net use Globe and Mail (Sept 15) A study commissioned by AOL Canada found that 75% of Canadian kids between 12 and 17 go online for schoolwork. They also use it for music, movies, video games, and entertainment. Of course, some are emailing and chatting too. On the whole, the study concluded that they balance their internet use reasonably well.
Canadians scope out jobs, homes on-line: Study Globe Technology (Sept 15) Ipsos-Reid study found that Canadians use the internet to do online banking, look for jobs, look for houses. Doesn't sound like they are having much fun.
When understanding lags behind technology By Peter de Jager. Special to Globe and Mail Update (Sep 1) Comments on the implications of the judgement by the Federal Court of Canada to dismiss the Canadian Recording Industry of Canada's (CRIA's) motion to get Internet Service Providers to divulge the identities behind P2P networks that share music over the Internet. Says that Copyright law today can't handle Copyoften, Copyfree and Copyeasy.
No Laughing Matter for Americans: Canadians More Likely to Visit Humor Sites comScore Media Metrix Reveals Canadians Are Significantly More Likely than Americans to Visit Humor Sites (March 3) -- ".. nearly 1 in 3 online Canadians visited sites in the Entertainment-Humor category in January, compared to fewer than 1 in 5 Americans". Article lists the funny websites that Canadians and Americans frequent. CoffeeBreakArcade, a site with free Internet games, was in fourth spot for Canadians and no where to be seen on the American top-10 list.
Music-sharing fight comes to Canada by Matthew Ingram. Globe and Mail (Feb 16) - Canadian Recording Industry Association is tackling the problem of file sharing in Canada but it may have a tougher row than its US counterparts.
"The main complicating factor for the CRIA is that under Canadian law downloading of music from the Internet – even music a user has not actually paid for – may turn out to be legal, because of the copyright levy that Canadians pay on blank CDs (21 cents per disc). A ruling by the Copyright Board in December, which extended that levy to hard-drive based music players, specifically said that the downloading of music files is permitted under Canadian copyright laws."
64 per cent of Canadians used Internet over one-month period: poll Canadian Press (Dec 21)
August poll was done by Leger Marketing.
"Regional breakdowns in this year's poll were British Columbia, 71 per cent; Ontario, 67; Alberta, 66; Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 63; the Atlantic provinces, 60 and Quebec, 58."
Canadians Are Frequent Connectors By Robyn Greenspan. Cyberatlas (Sept 30, 2003)
"Many Canadians log on, log off, log on, log off, and log on again, according to research from The Yankee Group that finds 48 percent of the nation's users access the Internet at least three times per day. Furthermore, 71 percent of those spend at least 15 minutes online during each session, and 5 percent of Canadians report they stay connected to the Internet throughout the day. "
Article has a chart of activities. 95.2% do email and 51% electronic banking.
Internet use growth rate dips Globe and Mail Update (Sept 18)
"In 2002, an estimated 7.5 million households had at least one member who used the Internet regularly, either from home, work, school, a public library or another location, up 4 per cent from 2001 -- far below the gains of 19 per cent in 2001 and 24 per cent the year before."
- British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario are heavier users of the Internet.
- 51% of households used online banking
- 64% of households looked for health or medical information
- 57% connected to a government site
More Canadians booking travel on-line: Study Globe and Mail (Aug 28) -- An Ispsos-Reid study found that 36 percent of Canadians with Internet access have booked some travel online, and that the Internet is the primary source of travel information for 35 percent of users. Favourite travel web sites are Expedia, Travelocity, Air Canada, and CAA.