A pair of recent surveys of Internet usage in Hungary reveals that, while Hungarians are increasingly "modern" in their use of the web, the country lags badly in one key area. The most recent survey of Hungarian Internet use by researchers Szonda Ipsos and Gemius Hungary has found a growing use of blogs and international "Web 2.0" content-sharing sites, while other research puts Hungary last among 29 countries in terms of the percentage of bloggers among active Internet users.

Big Sites Continue to Dominate
According to the Szonda Ipsos/Gemius Hungary study, the most visited site in January was Google.hu - visited by 2.9 million people at least once during the month - followed by Hungarian-language social networking site Iwiw.hu (2.6 million) and "distributed" portal Startlap.hu (2.2 million). The US-based video sharing portal YouTube was the fifth most visited site in January, and while its functions are in English, it came ahead of all Hungarian video-sharing sites, such as Index Zrt's Indavideo (20th) and T-Online's Videa.hu (41st).

As for the time spent on various sites, the survey found little change among top sites, with Google.hu and Iwiw.hu being the country's "stickiest" sites.

The notion that Hungarian Internet users are increasingly "modern" was underscored by the growing number of visits to blogging networks. Visits to Blog.hu (18th) were up 126% in January compared to the previous month. Visits to Blogter.hu (32nd) were up 124% and to Freeblog.hu (28th) by 90%.

Márton Kovács, research leader of Szonda-Ipsos, told Mfor.hu that the increase in the visit figures for Blog.hu was in part due to more precise monitoring of visits.

The survey was done with the participation of over 3,000 people, with data also provided by website publishers.

Blogging Twice as Common in Czech Republic
Despite the big gains in traffic for Hungary's blogging networks, the country continues to lag in the adoption of blogging by users. According to a origo.hu, a survey conducted by media agency Universal McCann put Hungary in last place among 29 countries in regards to the number of Internet users who blog.

The survey examined a representative sample of 17,000 active Internet users between 16 and 51 years of age, defining "active" as those who use the Internet at least once in an average two-day period.

While blogging is becoming increasingly common among Internet users around the world, only 8% of active Internet users in Hungary blog, compared to upwards of 70% in some Asian countries.

Even in the Czech Republic, which is 28th on the list, the rate of bloggers among active Internet users is 18.2%, more than twice the rate in Hungary.