London and Canterbury are the e-capitals of the UK according to the first national survey to lift the lid on what Britons are doing on the internet. Bournemouth was second to last and Torquay had the lowest score, making it the most e-Luddite town in the land.
More than 12,000 people completed the Great British e-test “How ‘se’s are you?” developed by online consultants Enhance Media. It covered 30 internet activities, ranging from using a search engine and email, to subscribing to an RSS feed and uploading a video to YouTube. Results revealed:
| Britain’s most e-literate towns | Britain’s least e-literate towns | ||
| 1 | London | 1 | Torquay |
| 2 | Canterbury | 2 | Bournemouth |
| 3 | Cambridge | 3 | Twickenham |
| 4 | Swindon | 4 | Peterborough |
| 5 | Chelmsford | 5 | Wakefield |
| 6 | Glasgow | 6 | Doncaster |
| 7 | Milton Keynes | 7 | Derby |
| 8 | Sheffield | Stoke-on-Trent | |
Tim Elkington, managing director of Enhance Media who carried out the survey said: “People in Canterbury clearly love the internet but you might have trouble finding a WiFi connection in Torquay.”
Unsurprisingly, people working in IT had the highest average score at 75 (out of 100), followed by those in the design/creative sector and then marketing.
Students were among those registering the lowest score – 48, below the test average of 53. But the survey does include questions about applying for a job and buying something for over £1,000 which are less likely to apply to students.
Enhance Media hopes that by providing in-depth insight into how the UK is using the internet, the survey will become the web-user equivalent of the Consumer Prices Index, which monitors the nation's shopping habits.
Already the idea has been taken up in Europe, including in France, where the test is known as the ‘stest de culture geek.’s Tim Elkington added: “We all probably think we use the internet pretty well but now we can see just how we compare with our friends, colleagues and the rest of the UK. With such a fast-moving medium, there’ss always going to be someone who?s found something you don?t know about - but that you could benefit from.”
Other results showed: 97% used email; 97% used a search engine; 94% downloaded software; 93% read an online newspaper/news site; 88% used a price comparison site; 88% obtained directions/map; 83% downloaded music/video; 81% used online banking; 71% applied for a job online; 67% used a social networking site; 42% sold something on an auction site; 29% created their own blog and 19% bought something for more than £1,000.
The test also revealed the top 20 websites. BBC, Facebook and Google, were top in that order. Other favourites included Wikipedia, YouTube, Digg and Piczo.