More Than Three-Fourths Of U.S. Home Web Users Have BroadbandMore Than Three-Fourths Of U.S. Home Web Users Have Broadband

More than three in four U.S. home Internet users used broadband connections to access the Web in November, with gaming, instant messaging, e-mail and social networking among the favorite activities, a market research firm says.

The number of broadband-connected home Web users was 13% higher than in November last year, when 65% had high-speed connections, Nielsen/NetRatings said Tuesday. Broadband users spent an average of 34 hours and 50 minutes online, a third more time than narrowband users.

In addition, broadband users accounted for 82% of all the time home users spent on the Web last month, and viewed more than twice as many Web pages as people with slow-speed connections, the research firm said.

Sites offering online gaming, instant messaging, email or social networking dominated the top 10 list, based on the average amount of time spent per broadband user, Nielsen said. The popularity of these sites indicates how the Web has become an integral part of everyday social life, particularly among children and teenagers.

Gaming sites Pogo.com and Electronic Arts were first and second, respectively, followed by AOL Instant Messenger. Four and five were social network MySpace.com and Microsoft's MSN Games, respectively. Rounding out the top 10 were No. 6 RuneScape, followed by Yahoo Mail, Google Gmail, iTunes and Trend Micro.