More UK Internet users plan their lives online

Increasing numbers of Web users in the UK are turning to the Internet to help keep New Year’s resolutions, according to the latest UK figures from Nielsen/NetRatings.

The January data shows a surge in visitors to websites providing help on getting a new job, buying property, booking a holiday, changing a car and even tracing family roots.

Travel sites experienced a particularly dramatic rise in popularity, but the success of Auto- trader.co.uk suggests that UK surfers are using the Internet to plan this year’s big financial outlays.

David Day, director of analytical services at AC Nielsen eRatings.com says: “The boom in visitors to travel sites is remarkable, but just as interesting is the range of sites which show up in the data for the first time.

“Monster.com, for example, was one of the highest new entries, and Geneaology.com made its debut too. This shows the growing popularity of sites that relate to users’ own lives.”

January saw only a small change in the UK’s total Internet access, but the number of people making use of that access leapt by over a million compared with December’s figures.

Nielsen/NetRatings’ data show surges in time spent online and pages viewed per month by surfers. “Christmas is a quiet time for Internet users,” says Day, “but these figures show that the growth of Internet use in the UK remains a steady trend.”