How many new Web Pages have you opened today? 10? 15? May be 50? How much time did you spend on it before you hit the Back button? Since the majority of reading is now done on the computer screen, it has become easier to track how much time we spend on pages and how much we actually read?!

Check this Out:

Harald Weinreich* and his team supplied 25 users’ browsers and recorded extended information about their normal Web activities. This study is completely naturalistic and users weren’t asked to do anything specific.
If we take an online page it usually will contain some images, some text (on average 593 Words) and navigation tools.
. Clearly, we don’t read every single second while we stay on the page, instead we spend time understanding the layout, figuring out navigation as well as looking at images. Harald Weinreich did not perform an eye tracking research but we can’t say how much time exactly his participants were reading, but it will compensate for the fact that his users had above-average intelligence, with several being university employees. In the table below you can see that with the increase of words on the page, the amount of time readers spend on the page increases.

However, for each extra 200 words of text, users stayed on the page for only 8 additional seconds. Too bad for us (writers).

In reality, users will ONLY read 20% of the text! It’s a good thing to keep in mind while coming up with an article or a web-page, but how can you benefit from this knowledge?
Imagine if you could read 2-3 times faster than an average person? Do you think it will help you grasp twice as much information in the same amount of time?
In fact, your table will look like this:
We stayed on the safe side and simply doubled the speed from 250 WPM to 500 WPM, but it’s not unusual for our graduates to triple their current speed after the class.

You would be able to spend the same amount of time on the page and cover far more material, consequently have more thorough knowledge and have a better understanding of the material. You will be going back to the window less often!

Since everybody else around you is only covering 20% of the material, it’s so easy to be ahead of the game. You can spend the same amount of time on the page as you were spending and get twice more value. You will cover more quality information that will stay and may be get a promotion that you always wanted! Being able to read faster helps you achieve more with less effort and time.
Which fits your information needs? Please leave your comments below.

I will also promise to keep my word count diet and finish my blog by congratulating you on getting through the article. You can now award yourself with the title of a Persistent Reader!

*Harald Weinreich, Hartmut Obendorf, Eelco Herder, and Matthias Mayer: “Not Quite the Average: An Empirical Study of Web Use,” in the ACM Transactions on the Web, vol. 2, no. 1 (February 2008), article #5.

Our Quick Research Team the face of

Katya Seberson

Whether you’re the CEO of a multinational, or the department intern, you qualify as a business professional.  Needless to say, that title entails the possession of a broad set of skills that includes leadership, communication, practical knowledge, and yes–reading.  Reading may not seem like a significant part of your day-to-day work.   You may have abandoned the notion of reading with the concluding chapter of your college textbooks.  Quite the contrary, in fact.   If you are a serious player in the competitive job market of today, you already know that simple tasks that may not seem to take up much of your time actually eat up more of it than you’d think.  But you already knew that.  You’re a clever professional.  You know that cutting down on time spent doing menial labor–like reading–means more time doing work that relates directly to your job. (more…)

Even if you aren’t looking for a job at the moment, it’s always a good idea to know about the best career sites. For example, LinkedIn allows you to build up your connections in a way similar to MySpace or Facebook. Here are my top career sites for students and professionals:

• LinkedIn.com – Remember the concept of six degrees of separation? This site is the MySpace/Facebook for business people. It allows you to easily to see who your friends are connected to. Is very helpful if you’re looking for a new job and need an introduction. Feel free to connect to me here to see who I’m connected to.
• GlassDoor.com – Allows you to see ratings, reviews and salaries for over 14,000 employers. Ever wondered what it would be like to work at a certain company? This site provides an easy way to get some insights.
• Startuply.com – Have you always wanted to work for a startup? Then this website is for you. This website lists positions with top startups such as Digg, StumbleUpon and many others.
• AfterCollege.com – Did you just graduate? Or are you graduating soon? This website provides listings to many entry level jobs and internships.
• Vault.com – This website has been around for a while and is very comprehensive. Has a variety of resources for those looking for jobs.

How about you? Are there any others out there that you would recommend? Please add to the comments.

Paul Nowak