SAN FRANCISCO — Fifty-eight percent of Internet consumers say the Web
has changed the way they shop, a 7-percent rise over last year, according to the World Wide Internet Opinion Survey, a joint project of @d:tech and community Web site Talk City. The results were released here yesterday at the @d:tech conference.
In other survey results, privacy concerns are increasing while security fears are down slightly. Eighteen percent of those polled cited privacy as the single greatest deterrent to shopping online, double the 9 percent a year ago; 42 percent listed security as a shopping deterrent, compared to 45 percent in 1998.
Other highlights included:
* 55 percent of respondents said they would pay for content.
* 80 percent have made impulse purchases online.
* 30 percent have been driven to Web sites by word of mouth.
* 38 percent said Web searches most frequently drove them to new
Web sites.
* 74 percent have used the Internet to research big-ticket items.
* 27 percent said they turn to the Web for major breaking news.
