NOVELL: Official -- Football better than sex say office web surfers
JUL 10, 1998, M2 Communications - Novell UK -- Tracking World Cup activity on the Internet whilst at work is more popular than surfing the myriad of sites on sex, reports a new survey by Internet software company Novell. Over a quarter of all UK office workers are using the web to follow the action taking place at the France '98 World Cup, in contrast with the results of a separate Novell survey conducted at the end of last year which found that 15% of workers said that they viewed pornographic or obscene material on the Internet at work.
The survey, which comes shortly after it was reported that the official World Cup web site is the most widely accessed site in history with over 58 million hits recorded in one day, shows that the Internet has well and truly arrived as a medium of choice for sports fans. Of the thousand adults interviewed about their use of the Internet at work and study, 51% of office workers who use the Internet for recreational purposes accessed World Cup related sites. Over a fifth of all women accessed these sites, reflecting the growing popularity of football and the web amongst women.
Eugene Forrester, market development manager, Novell UK commented on the survey: "Clearly the Internet has become an information service that ranks alongside TV and radio; but unlike TV and radio, scores and results are available instantly. Whilst most would agree football is fairly innocuous, the 50% using the Internet for non-work purposes in the office can be a serious problem and lead to many wasted hours."
Adds Forrester: "Companies need to address this problem. A new generation of products, such as Novell BorderManager, can ensure that employees do not access obscene sites while still letting them, if the company agrees, to look at the football results."
The survey also found that 36% of those surveyed worked for a company that allowed employees to watch England or Scotland games live on television during work hours, leaving almost two thirds with no option but to keep in touch by other means, with the Internet proving to be a popular way of doing so.
Novell BorderManager enables companies to completely control all access by employees to unsuitable web sites and also greatly improves the speed and performance of access to web pages and counters what is sometimes called the "World-wide wait". More information on Novell BorderManager is available at novell.com.
About the Survey
The figures are based on a telephone survey conducted among 1016 members of the public in the UK. The survey was commissioned by Novell and conducted by Audience Selection, a leading market research agency.
About Novell
Founded in 1983, Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL) is the world's leading provider of network software. The company offers a wide range of network solutions for distributed network, Internet/intranet and small-business markets, as well as the network computing industry's most comprehensive education and technical support programmes. Information about Novell and its complete range of products and services can be accessed on the World Wide Web at novell.com. |
