来自尼尔森的数据研究称社交网络和社交游戏占据了美国用户超过3分之1的上网时间。仅在过去的一年，美国用户使用社交网站的时间递增了43%，其中社交游戏递增了10%。

尼尔森的数据分析师Dave Martin表示社交网络、社交游戏和电子邮件是用户最为活跃的三个互联网行为。

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分析师Brad Shimmin也表示，如果google也大举进入社交网络领域，那么他们就势必对facebook上最具用户吸引力的社交游戏部分做更深入的挖掘。

Social-networking sites and online game play account for almost a third of the time Americans spend online. So says a report from The Nielsen Company entitled What Americans Do Online.

Americans spend nearly 23 percent of their online time using social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, up 43 percent from just a year ago. Meanwhile, playing video games consumes about 10 percent of the average American Internet user’s time, a 10 percent increase from a year ago.

“Despite the almost unlimited nature of what you can do on the web, 40 percent of U.S. online time is spent on just three activities — social networking, playing games, and e-mailing, leaving a whole lot of other sectors fighting for a declining share of the online pie,” said Nielsen analyst Dave Martin. E-mail usage declined eight percent to total about 28 percent of the American Internet user’s time.

Social Media by the Numbers

Not surprisingly, Facebook is the social-media king, logging 85 percent of the time spent using social-networking sites. MySpace didn’t even come close with 5.6 percent. And despite the hoopla about Twitter, the micro-blogging service still only accounts for 1.1 percent of the time Americans spend on social-networking sites. Blogger matches Twitter’s usage.

Despite the rising fame of Zynga games, Electronic Arts still reigns supreme in online games. Seventeen percent of U.S. users’ online gaming time is spent playing EA games. Blizzard Entertainment ranked second in the Nielsen study with 12 percent. Zynga Game Network grabbed less than five percent of the average American Internet user’s time. Zynga is the maker of games like Mafia Wars and Farmville.

Still, Google is betting on Zynga. The search giant reportedly invested $120 million in the online game company last month, feeding into the rumors of a Google Me social network Relevant Products/Services with a heavy emphasis on online games. Combined, social networking and online games make up 32.9 percent of the time spent online, according to Nielsen.

The Ultimate Social Network

“If Google is gearing up for a launch of their own social network, they certainly have tapped into the greatest source of traffic generation on Facebook to date, which is games,” said Brad Shimmin, an analyst at Current Analysis.

“Games trigger a pleasure response in our brains of when we solve a problem or reach a level,” he added. “So it’s not surprising that they are as popular as they are. It’s also a testament to how powerful the concept of social networking is and how advantageous it is to tie it into gaming.”

While e-mail, instant messaging, and portal usage is declining, video viewing online is still growing. Nielsen reports a 12 percent increase in American Internet users viewing videos and movies on sites like YouTube, Hulu and Netflix. That translates to about four percent of time spent online.