Great news! The masses of unemployed in the United States are driving up online usage. This according to a Wall Street Journal story, which effectively says the Internet is to the out-of-work today as the movies were to folks during The Depression — a source of escape.
Netflix Inc. said its number of subscribers grew 26 percent over the holidays to 9.4 million, compared with 18 percent in the same period the year before.
And, according to comScore Inc., the number of visitors to online game sites increased 29.9 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with a 0.3 percent decline during the same period the prior year.
Meanwhile, Internet gambling site visitor numbers jumped 28.6 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with a 26.9 percent decline for the same quarter in 2007.
Even celebrity gossip guru Perez Hilton is getting in the action. "When times are tough, you turn to PerezHilton.com!" he wrote in a January blog noting his good traffic numbers.
