According to a monthly usage report released by Media Metrix Canada, a Toronto-based company, Canadians spent 7.8 billion minutes on-line in August.
Women, men, teenagers and even children from ages two to 11 all spent more time using the Internet from home last month, contributing to an overall monthly increase of 1.1 billion minutes.
The sites recording the largest increase in total minutes included Pogo.com — a games site — and Neopets.com
In total, Canadians spent an average of 647.8 minutes of time on-line from home in August, the survey found, up from 559.3 minutes spent surfing in July.
Women 18 and over spent an average of 118 more minutes on-line in August than they did in July.
At-home surfing by men also jumped, by 71 minutes, to an average of 689.7 minutes — or 11.5 hours — a month.
Children aged two to 11 had the lowest usage — an average 174.6 minutes a month, up from 161.1 minutes in July.
During August, 12 million Canadians visited Web sites or used digital media applications, such as instant messaging, from home.
On average, those visitors were on-line 12 separate days during the month.
Top sites during the month included MSN.com and Yahoo.com.
The top Canadian newcomer sites — those breaking the Media Metrix reporting minimum of 1 per cent for the first time during the month — included CTV.ca and GMCanada.com.
