Earlier this this year, we commented on the infamous Steve Jobs quote "...the fact is people don't read anymore," arguing that, people do read, they just prefer to do it online. However, in this transition from page to screen, a question has risen: are people really reading online content or just scanning page. Apparently, it's the latter.

Jakob Nielson, web usability consultant, author, and owner of useit.com, writes on his site about a recent research study by Harald Weinreich, Hartmut Obendorf, Eelco Herder, and Matthias Mayer: "Not Quite the Average: An Empirical Study of Web Use."

What Nielson found by analyzing the data in the study was that although people spend more time on pages with more words and more information, they only spend 4.4 seconds more for each additional 100 words.

Some other interesting findings include:

• On an average visit, users read half the information only on those pages with 111 words or less.



• People spend some of their time understanding the page layout and navigation features, as well as looking at