According to a four year study  conducted by Nielsen/Netratings on behalf of the Online Publishers Association, average online time spent on communications such as email fell 28 percent, while content viewing jumped 34 percent over the same period.

It tracked a 37 percent increase in the amount of time spent viewing content such as online videos or news, surpassing a 35 percent rise in using search engines like Google Inc.

The abundance of content and faster online speeds accounted for the spike, the study said. A proliferation of social networks such as News Corps' MySpace and Facebook have helped boost content viewing as well.

Overall, viewing content accounts for 47 percent of time spent online in 2007, up from 34 percent in 2003. Web search accounted for 5 percent of time spent online in 2007 from 3 percent in 2003.

Time spent on commerce sites such as Amazon.com fell 5 percent and accounted for 15 percent of time spent in 2007.

Time spent on communications such as e-mail fell 28 percent to 33 percent of time spent online in 2007, down from 46 percent in 2003.

The popularity of instant messaging such as AOL Instant Messenger, which lets users send quick messages rather than e-mails, accounted for the drop in the amount of time spent corresponding, the study said.