Web usage has leveled off, remaining at 12 hours per week in 2009 after growing annually from six hours in 2004, according to a Forrester Research annual survey of more than 40,000 people, as reported by AdAge.com.

Forrester pointed out that faster broadband speeds and greater familiarity with the Internet allow Web surfers to be more efficient, and that other media, such as newspapers and magazines, experienced the same flatness.

Forrester analyst Jackie Rousseau-Anderson told AdAge.com:

Originally the Internet was a great "unknown." We saw marked increases in the time spent online as people began to try out this new medium and become acquainted with it. The amount of time people were dedicating to the Internet grew significantly because it took people time to sit down and figure out how to use it and where they should be going. These were the days of "hard-core surfing"; people just floating through the Internet, not really sure what they were looking for, but just spending time looking around.

Now, people's use is more defined. People who have been online awhile understand how to use the Internet sufficiently and can maximize the time they have to spend on it. They generally know which sites they are going to when they log in. For new people starting out, the proliferation of Website advertising (i.e., Websites listed in commercials, affiliated with brands, etc.) helps direct people to where they want to go. Similarly, Google and other search engines have become staples of Internet use so instead of surfing around to find what you're looking for, you can simply go to Google, type in your search terms and all of the hard work is done. The icing on top of all this is faster connection speeds. With broadband, there is no waiting for pages to load and connections to happen.