Study: Content fuels the social Web

New York—Online content is the connective tissue for Internet users, with millions of pieces shared daily and nearly one-quarter of all social media messages linking to content, according to a new study from AOL Inc.

According to AOL's study, done in partnership with Nielsen Online, Internet users share 27 million pieces of content daily, with 53% of time spent on the Internet directly attributable to content consumption. Also, 60% of content-sharing messages specifically mention a brand or product name.

For the study, Nielsen used monitoring and analysis tools to track more than 10,000 social media messages in December 2010 and also polled the company's Online Behavior Panel members about their online experiences.