By Katya Poltorak, Northeastern University
Image: Solen Feyissa - Unsplash
Northeastern University researchers found that Gmail takes the biggest bite out of an average web browser’s day, with Facebook and YouTube following close behind. Yahoo Mail, Google Docs, Google Search, Amazon, Reddit, Outlook, ChatGTP and X round out the top hits, while the rest of the 344,753 sites users viewed captured only a tiny fraction of their attention.
What keeps people glued to the computer screen? Turns out it’s not Netflix marathons, Reddit rabbit holes or impulse Amazon splurges — it’s Gmail.
A research team at the Northeastern University’s Institute for Information, the Internet and Democracy found that this platform captures by far the largest share of users’ collective attention and accounts for a whopping 16.38 percent of all desktop browsing time.
No amount of streaming, doom-scrolling or impulse shopping compares to the simple act of checking your inbox, according to their May 2026 study. The data used in the research came from the National Internet Observatory, a research organization that had consenting participants install browser extensions to track their internet use.
“I’d like to think that was just me. I spent a lot of time on email,” said first author David Lazer, Northeastern University professor of computer science and political studies.
But he’s certainly not alone. As the paper puts it, “the average person in (the) sample spent more time on Gmail alone than on the bottom 300,000 websites combined,” referring to the total 344,753 sites included in the report. A total of 4,608 users took part in the survey.
The pattern did vary a bit across generations. The study found that people over 65 spent over a third of their time on Gmail, while their younger counterparts devoted only 11.6 percent of their time to their inbox. Still, as “the tool of choice for work-related stuff and basic communication” email is a daily staple for everyone, Lazer explained.
“And Gmail is the big kahuna,” he said.
In fact, the slice of desktop time devoted to inboxes might be even larger, Lazer added, explaining that the study didn’t capture data from Outlook or other standalone desktop apps. A follow-up on mobile browsing coming out in the next few weeks will fill in the gaps by tracking app usage.
After Gmail, YouTube accounted for 10.38 percent of the total time, and Facebook for 7.97 percent. The rest of the top websites included additional email platforms, such as Yahoo Mail and Outlook, as well as other social media sites Reddit and X, which together made up the second largest category. Productivity tools, including Google Docs and Google Search, came next, with commerce, streaming, search, large language models (LLMs), gaming and news ranking just below.
Although Google search ranks in the top 10, it might seem surprising that it falls below Gmail. After all, according to the statistics platform Statista, “finding information” ranks as the main goal that internet users around the world report for logging online.
It comes down to how often you open a certain site versus how long you linger there, Lazer explained. You might use Google a lot, “but you don’t necessarily dwell on (it). You do a search, and then you move on,” he said, adding that with email, “hours disappear.”
The researchers found that the top 10 platforms capture nearly half the total time. It’s amazing “how much of our online experiences are mediated by a very tiny number of platforms and companies,” Lazer said.
Activist Thorin Klosowski from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to digital privacy and security, isn’t surprised by the research results. “The major tech companies have worked really hard to be all-in-one landing spots for the internet as a whole, so people don’t even think about what alternatives might exist,” he said.
Just think about it: you don’t “Vivaldi” (another web browser) or even “Firefox” a hint to a crossword puzzle or the schedule of a local bus. You Google it.
This concentration of content into big big platforms also makes it unlikely that the data, which the researchers gathered between June 2024 and December 2025, would look very different today. Lazer explained that platforms that are already big tend to attract more users, stay big and grow over time. “You get bigger by being big,” he said.
Co-author Burak Ozturan raised a delicate point that some have brought up after the release of the study. What about the adult sites? Surely NSFW (not safe for work) browsing can’t be close to non-existent, as the data seems to suggest.
Ozturan put this matter to rest by explaining that users were free to go off the radar and switch to private mode when they wished. It skews the results a bit, but “that’s part of doing this ethically,” Lazer explained.
Ozturan, who is leading the mobile study, said preliminary results show that although basic trends look similar to desktop browsing, some notable differences are emerging as well.
“Email turns out to be big on phones too … and of course TikTok is vastly bigger on mobile,” Lazer said. Social media apps, such as Instagram, will likely loom large. Shopping apps will have a big presence as well, followed by productivity and business ones.
However, the biggest winner in the mobile world is turning out to be messaging. “People are sending messages to each other via either WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. It’s the biggest category so far in our measurement,” Ozturan said.
This trend, in turn, echoes Gmail’s reign over desktop browsing. With messaging in the lead instead of email, “the biggest use is still communication,” Lazer said.
The fact that communication still commands the most attention is good news for those concerned about the way the digital environment is shaping the people engaging with it.
Poet and filmmaker Max Stossel, who also serves as the head of education at The Center for Humane Technology, a nonprofit organization, said he’s “happy to see it’s taking up more of our desktop time than social media.” Given that “the vast majority of content watched on YouTube (and Facebook) is algorithmically driven,” people end up “being pushed ideologically towards the most extreme, outrageous … versions of the world.” He found it refreshing that the internet’s potentially toxic traps don’t dominate browser use — though they’re not too far behind.
In the end, if you’re going to spend a few hours online, answering emails and getting in touch with friends is a pretty harmless way to do it.
About author: Katya Poltorak is a science reporter at Northeastern Global News. Email her at e.poltorak@northeastern.edu.
This article was originally published by Northeastern Global News and republished on DIW with permission.
Read next: The Influence of Influencers on Product Choice
Image: Solen Feyissa - UnsplashNortheastern University researchers found that Gmail takes the biggest bite out of an average web browser’s day, with Facebook and YouTube following close behind. Yahoo Mail, Google Docs, Google Search, Amazon, Reddit, Outlook, ChatGTP and X round out the top hits, while the rest of the 344,753 sites users viewed captured only a tiny fraction of their attention.
What keeps people glued to the computer screen? Turns out it’s not Netflix marathons, Reddit rabbit holes or impulse Amazon splurges — it’s Gmail.
A research team at the Northeastern University’s Institute for Information, the Internet and Democracy found that this platform captures by far the largest share of users’ collective attention and accounts for a whopping 16.38 percent of all desktop browsing time.
No amount of streaming, doom-scrolling or impulse shopping compares to the simple act of checking your inbox, according to their May 2026 study. The data used in the research came from the National Internet Observatory, a research organization that had consenting participants install browser extensions to track their internet use.
“I’d like to think that was just me. I spent a lot of time on email,” said first author David Lazer, Northeastern University professor of computer science and political studies.
But he’s certainly not alone. As the paper puts it, “the average person in (the) sample spent more time on Gmail alone than on the bottom 300,000 websites combined,” referring to the total 344,753 sites included in the report. A total of 4,608 users took part in the survey.
 |
| Each rectangle represents one of the 344,753 unique websites viewed between June 2024 and December 2025. The size is proportional to its share of total user time. Graphic Courtesy of David Lazer et al. |
The pattern did vary a bit across generations. The study found that people over 65 spent over a third of their time on Gmail, while their younger counterparts devoted only 11.6 percent of their time to their inbox. Still, as “the tool of choice for work-related stuff and basic communication” email is a daily staple for everyone, Lazer explained.
“And Gmail is the big kahuna,” he said.
In fact, the slice of desktop time devoted to inboxes might be even larger, Lazer added, explaining that the study didn’t capture data from Outlook or other standalone desktop apps. A follow-up on mobile browsing coming out in the next few weeks will fill in the gaps by tracking app usage.
After Gmail, YouTube accounted for 10.38 percent of the total time, and Facebook for 7.97 percent. The rest of the top websites included additional email platforms, such as Yahoo Mail and Outlook, as well as other social media sites Reddit and X, which together made up the second largest category. Productivity tools, including Google Docs and Google Search, came next, with commerce, streaming, search, large language models (LLMs), gaming and news ranking just below.
Although Google search ranks in the top 10, it might seem surprising that it falls below Gmail. After all, according to the statistics platform Statista, “finding information” ranks as the main goal that internet users around the world report for logging online.
It comes down to how often you open a certain site versus how long you linger there, Lazer explained. You might use Google a lot, “but you don’t necessarily dwell on (it). You do a search, and then you move on,” he said, adding that with email, “hours disappear.”
The researchers found that the top 10 platforms capture nearly half the total time. It’s amazing “how much of our online experiences are mediated by a very tiny number of platforms and companies,” Lazer said.
Activist Thorin Klosowski from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to digital privacy and security, isn’t surprised by the research results. “The major tech companies have worked really hard to be all-in-one landing spots for the internet as a whole, so people don’t even think about what alternatives might exist,” he said.
Just think about it: you don’t “Vivaldi” (another web browser) or even “Firefox” a hint to a crossword puzzle or the schedule of a local bus. You Google it.
This concentration of content into big big platforms also makes it unlikely that the data, which the researchers gathered between June 2024 and December 2025, would look very different today. Lazer explained that platforms that are already big tend to attract more users, stay big and grow over time. “You get bigger by being big,” he said.
Co-author Burak Ozturan raised a delicate point that some have brought up after the release of the study. What about the adult sites? Surely NSFW (not safe for work) browsing can’t be close to non-existent, as the data seems to suggest.
Ozturan put this matter to rest by explaining that users were free to go off the radar and switch to private mode when they wished. It skews the results a bit, but “that’s part of doing this ethically,” Lazer explained.
Ozturan, who is leading the mobile study, said preliminary results show that although basic trends look similar to desktop browsing, some notable differences are emerging as well.
“Email turns out to be big on phones too … and of course TikTok is vastly bigger on mobile,” Lazer said. Social media apps, such as Instagram, will likely loom large. Shopping apps will have a big presence as well, followed by productivity and business ones.
However, the biggest winner in the mobile world is turning out to be messaging. “People are sending messages to each other via either WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. It’s the biggest category so far in our measurement,” Ozturan said.
This trend, in turn, echoes Gmail’s reign over desktop browsing. With messaging in the lead instead of email, “the biggest use is still communication,” Lazer said.
The fact that communication still commands the most attention is good news for those concerned about the way the digital environment is shaping the people engaging with it.
Poet and filmmaker Max Stossel, who also serves as the head of education at The Center for Humane Technology, a nonprofit organization, said he’s “happy to see it’s taking up more of our desktop time than social media.” Given that “the vast majority of content watched on YouTube (and Facebook) is algorithmically driven,” people end up “being pushed ideologically towards the most extreme, outrageous … versions of the world.” He found it refreshing that the internet’s potentially toxic traps don’t dominate browser use — though they’re not too far behind.
In the end, if you’re going to spend a few hours online, answering emails and getting in touch with friends is a pretty harmless way to do it.
About author: Katya Poltorak is a science reporter at Northeastern Global News. Email her at e.poltorak@northeastern.edu.
This article was originally published by Northeastern Global News and republished on DIW with permission.
Read next: The Influence of Influencers on Product Choice
