Big web brands take up half of UK online time

Internet giants such as Google and eBay account for the majority of our time on the web

Facebook and MSN are some of the most heavily used web sites

Top online brands such as Facebook, Google, eBay and YouTube take up almost half of all the UK's time spent on the web, according to research.

The study by Nielsen Online suggests the amount of time spent by users during April at the top 10 online brands - Facebook, MSN/Windows Live, Google, eBay, Yahoo, AOL Media Network, BBC, YouTube, Microsoft and Apple – jumped to 45 per cent from 42 per cent in the same month last year.

The research suggests that out of the main brands, Facebook represents 13 per cent of all UK internet time and is one of the most heavily used web sites along with MSN/Windows Live.

The leading sites have a collective time of 11 billion minutes out of the 48 billion minutes spent online in the UK, or one in every five minutes of web access. The remaining 55 per cent share of online time is divided among 7,625 web brands.

Nielsen said the average UK user spent 22 hours and 20 minutes online or using web-based applications in April, up 34 per cent from last year, when the figure was 16 hours and 36 minutes.