The results come from data that was gathered earlier this year from a sample of 2,251 adults in the United States. Of those surveyed, 55% of adults actually seek out information about local restaurants before sallying forth into the world to fill their bellies. Among those adults seeking out info about where they may eat, 51% of them used the Internet, which includes search engines, specialty websites, and social media. 31% of people still rely on newspapers or newspaper websites (print ain’t dead yet!) and 23% of you actually still talk to people to get recommendations.

Among the participants in the study, those most likely to get information about restaurants, bars, and clubs were “disproportionately young, female, tech adaptive and upscale in educational attainment, and urban.” You know what that means, ladies? If you’re under 30 years old, tech-savvy, have at least some college education, and live in a metropolitan city then you are probably the one planning most of your dates. So send not to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for chivalry.

Pew also asked participants how they get information about local businesses other than restaurants and bars so as to distinguish between those looking to wine and dine and those looking to shop (presumably?). Of the 60% of adults who look for such info, 47% rely on the Internet while 30% rely on newspapers (sites or print) and, third most-used again, 22% of people rely on word-of-mouth to find out about local businesses. No distinctions were observed among race, gender, and ethnicity. The significant demographics are fairly similar to those who look for info about restaurants and bars except in this case, women aren’t overwhelmingly seeking out the information more than men. Seems like guys are more interested in planning their shopping sprees than they are eating or drinking or dancing.

As far as consumers most likely to coalesce around local businesses go, they appear to rely less on television as an information resource (the only things used less are radio, newsletters, and mobile phones [as in they call the business?]). Only 8% of those looking for any information on local businesses got information from television. Makes sense, given most of the advertisements are typically for chain restaurants (probably because those are the only business entities that can afford those TV spots). You could deduce that hopeful patrons of local businesses search for information through more direct lines of communication (business websites, local newspapers, experiential recommendations from others), which could be the foundation of building a marketing network in a community of local businesses.

Which reminds me: I need to check out UrbanSpoon reviews about the Indian restaurant across the street before lunch time rolls around.

So what do you use when you’re trying to find out about local businesses or restaurants? Share your info-searching skills below in the comments.

In their first study on frequency of Internet usage among adults since 2009, Pew’s data reveals that on any given day over half of American adults are likely to use the Internet just for fun or for no particular reason at all (most would index that latter activity as “wasting time”). Probably most unsurprising about the results of this study is that the youngest adults surveyed, those 18 to 29 years of age, reported the greatest increase of Internet usage as a diversion on any given day. Part of that increase may be explained with how the younger generations are growing up with greater exposure to the Internet but there’s also likely more accessibility in general to online goodness these days.

Apart from the finding that more adults are likely to use the Internet as a distraction anytime these days, the study also revealed that Internet usage for fun times has increased in a broader sense as well. In fact, the growing trend of adults seeking out the latest Internet memes and funny Twitter posts has doubled in the past eleven years.

Despite the general growth of people regarding the Internet as a leisure destination, two demographics still fall far behind the general population: Americans without a high school diploma and adults over the age of 65. While those two groups have seen increases – and even though those increases are two of the greatest percentages of growth amongst all demographics surveyed – they still are significantly behind all other demographics.

Upon further contemplation of the two line graphs above, though, I do have one lingering question about this data: What happened in 2005 that made the Internet less fun to people?

New stats from Pew Internet suggest that 20% of 25 to 34 year olds have used Twitter, with those 18 to 24 only 1 point behind (19%). While that number drops off to just 2% by the time you get to adults over 65, 11% of the total US population have used the micro-blogging service.

Other interesting stats:

• 27% of bloggers use Twitter
• 35% of city-dwellers use Twitter
• 76% of Twitter users use the internet wirelessly
• Only 10% of those earning more than $75,000 use Twitter, while 17% of those making less than $30k use the service.

No data on how many people have ever seen a FAIL Whale, but we suspect it’s in the upper 90’s.

UPDATE: Twitter just announced new funding to help it figure out a revenue model.

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Experts like doctors, lawyers or financial advisors came in second at 53 percent, while friends and family ranked third at 45 percent. "The ascendance of the Internet has a demand-side dimension and a supply-side dimension," said Lee Rainie, director of the non-profit Pew Internet and American Life Project.

"On the demand side, we clearly see that the spread of broadband has made the Internet an easy place for people to do research when they face problems." Rainie said that the growth of content makes the Internet a more valuable place to explore.

"Search engines make that content much easier to find," he added. "That creates a kind of virtuous cycle where more people come online and they find what they want, so that draws more people online and that creates incentives for placing more content online. And on and on and on."

The survey revealed that more than half of its partipants would favor using the Internet to interact with government. That includes school or work research using government material (66%), tax questions (57%), getting a driver’s license (53%) and other programs offered by agencies (55%).

In the U.S. the Internets popularity has increased do to the continuing growth of broadband. The survey found that 64 percent of Americans have broadband access at home or at work, or both. Thirteen percent had dial-up access.

Broadband users go online for research more often than dial-up users, with 72 percent turning to the Web, compared to 28 percent of those with dial-up.

Only a small portion  (26%) of those who have used the Internet to do research were concerned about their privacy being compromised.

The 47 percent scouring page after page of search results for their names sounded a little low to us, even though that figure more than doubles the 22 percent Pew Internet who admitted to self-search five years ago. Doesn’t every do this?

Apparently not. According to Pew Internet, the likelihood of ego surfing increases when the user is under 50, or has a higher education or income than the norm.

Neither gender does more vanity searching than the other. Men and women self search in equal numbers, with the number increasing with the person’s success in life.

The type of information people have online varies. Pew Internet said few of the respondents have their cellphone numbers, political affiliation, or videos of themselves online.

About a third of the survey group said their email address, home address and phone number, and employer are online. In an age where identity theft happens with alarming frequency, details like the home address and phone number may be best left offline.

But people don’t seem too worried about it. Pew’s survey found 61 percent of Internet users aren’t that worried about limiting what can be found out about them in a search engine. Only 38 percent actively took steps to reduce this information.

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As of now, the vast majority of Internet users in China are male, under 30, and urban dwellers, and two thirds are students or business workers. While there’s room to grow in urban areas, among the older citizenry and with women, the real test of the Internet’s impact on Chinese society will be when it reaches into rural areas.

Just three percent of rural China has Internet access, with peasants and farmers accounting for only 0.4 percent of Internet users. Though many of them cite not being able to afford Internet access, others cite lack of time. But a significant number cite lack of computer skills or lack of interest altogether.

Around ten percent in both rural and urban areas cited lack of need or interest – which, as a reminder, still amounts some 100 million people. And those with lack of interest may stay uninterested.

The author of Pew’s study, researcher Deborah Fallows, quotes a farmer in Shandong province: “To us farmers, a computer is no different from an aircraft carrier, because neither has a bearing on our life.”

Many are expecting the mobile industry to change all that. Rural mobile phone subscribers numbered 53 million last year, upping the total number of China Mobile subscribers to 300 million.

Though prices for computers are dropping, it most likely will be phones that connects China to the World Wide Web.

Impact

As China is increasingly wired, economic, social, political and linguistic change is expected. Business will thrive, it will be harder for the Chinese government to police the flow of information the way it does now, relations between the industrialized democratic nations will be strained, and the Chinese language may become more unified.

What does that mean for the language of the Web? Fallows is unsure:

Some experts suggested that English would remain dominant; others said that language dominance might shift to another language, like Chinese; others thought that a few languages would share a big online presence.

The total number of home broadband users this year is about as large as all of Internet users during the first year the survey was conducted in 2000. The Pew findings come after a recent study by the Brookings Institution study that tracked and linked broadband penetration rates and U.S. employment growth.

The Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA), a coalition of non-profit organizations and businesses focused on universal broadband access, says both studies strongly validate the importance of investment in and access to broadband technologies.

"These findings by the Pew Internet Project demonstrate that the adoption of broadband Internet connections continues to rise in the U.S. but there still remain gaps in this adoption curve that must be addressed," said Larry Irving, co-chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance.

"While tremendous progress has been made in recent years, broadband use in rural areas and among minority groups continues to lag behind the rest of the country, limiting these groups’ ability to take full advantage of the many benefits afforded by the internet."

The study found the use of broadband at home by African-American adults rose to 40 percent, up from less than 15 percent in 2005. Thirty-one percent of rural Americans have home broadband connections, compared with 49 percent and 52 percent of suburban and urban residents respectively.

"It is important that we foster a commercial, tax and policy environment that encourages investment and innovation in broadband technologies and their deployment," said Bruce Mehlman, co-chair of the IIA.

"The Pew Internet research demonstrates that we’ve made important progress toward a more pluralistic consumption of broadband, but highlights the gaps which still exist. The IIA remains committed to working toward universal broadband access."

Pew Internet researcher John Horrigan said in his report, titled ‘A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users’, four groups of people with “few technology assets” make up 49 percent of Americans.

“Modern gadgetry is at or near the periphery of their daily lives,” he wrote. “Some find it useful, others don

According to A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users (PDF download), half of all American adults are only occasional users of modern information gadgetry, while 8% are avid participants in all that digital life has to offer.

This is no better illustrated than by this chart from the 65-page report:

Interesting to see that half of those Americans are just not connected to the new Web 2.0 world:

[…] Fully half of adults have a more distant or non-existent relationship to modern information technology. Some of this diffidence is driven by people’s concerns about information overload; some is related to people’s sense that their gadgets have more capacity than users can master; some is connected to people’s sense that things like blogging and creating home-brew videos for YouTube is not for them; and some is rooted in people’s inability to afford or their unwillingness to buy the gear that would bring them into the digital age.

That looks like a very clear real-world view.

So many opportunities to educate people.

(Via TechCrunch)

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