Piling up on
office floors?

A survey of business decision makers in the U.K. found that the plurality of them look first to trade websites for their professional information (24 percent), almost double the proportion of businessmen who look to print trade magazines (14 percent), according to a NetImperative report on the U.K. Association of Online Publishers study. Only four percent looked to newspapers, and a similarly paltry number sought information from major websites like Yahoo and MSN or trade conferences. Six percent of those surveyed said email newsletters were their prime source of business information.

Interestingly, the new survey revealed that 83 percent of executives had taken an action as a result of seeing an ad on a business-to-business website. They spend, on average, about an hour a day on the internet for work purposes, and half of them use online trade magazines for research. Three quarters use them to keep up to date on their industries. 62 percent use them to help decide in product and service decision-making. 61 percent use them to keep a wary eye on the competition.

Three months ago, a telephone survey of executives found that they tapped Google as the most useful business information source.