Online Publishers Association released results on August 13, 2007, from a study comparing online behavior in 2003 and in 2007. To sum it up, visitors now tend to spend more time viewing content and less time searching. If you want the numbers, see the Online Publishers Association press release. The OPA also sites a number of factors that have contributed to these changes.

What was interesting also is that there’s a small (5%) decrease in commerce activity. It seems people are taking some of the shopping back offline. It’s not surprising since there had been analysis results in the past months suggesting consumers use the Internet mostly for research and comparison before doing actual shopping offline. This may not present that much of a problem for business that have a majority of offline sales, but for those doing retail mainly online, this decrease, however small, may present an introduction to a far more serious problem in the future. Online retail will have to come up with new ideas on how to convince consumers to buy online, with special focus on the social side of the web today.

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