Recent research by Hitwise has shown that the 55+ group are set to replace the 35 – 44 year olds as the largest share of internet users.

The report shows that money matters, travel and news are the most popular sites visited.

Based upon my own personal observations of a number of people in this age group this is what they are using the internet for:

• E-mail - keeping in touch with kids, grandkids and family
• Digital picture sharing - sending/receiving pictures
• E-commerce – on a budget this group can be savvy purchasers so they use comparison sites to rate products and compare prices. Many still then purchase in the High Street but increasing numbers are then buying online.
• Travel – cheap flights and time rich they want to ‘see the world’ before getting too old so are putting a package of hotels and flights online. The better off are cruising.
• News – keeping in touch is important and more are using this rather than newspapers as an information source
• Hobbies – many have interests to keep the active mentally and physically and they will visit targeted web sites
• Financial information – many track stock markets or other financial news as they are focussed on their pensions and income as they are retired, semi retired or close to retirement