Do you think your time online has increased over the last few years ? I am sure that the answer will be a resounding "OF COURSE!" and I am sure that when asked what you were doing I am sure the answer will be "Durr social media stupid" (or similar) BUT have you ever stopped to consider the effect on your online behaviour elsewhere ?

I always assumed that the rise in time spent online had a knock on effect to other sites from news to information based to educative or fun but apparently this is not the case.

A recent post on Supercollider that was highlighted on http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/ talked about "the end of the destination web and how the times are fading for websites and microsites are dead" In the post there are some great Google trends graphs that show that some of the best known brands in the World are losing visitors at a rate of knots - see ehere the example fo Disney.

Digitalbuzzblog have cited 2 reasons why they believe that website traffic is declining, firstly that social networks (obviously) are growing and most people prefer to hang out there instead of searching the big brands websites for content to interact with and secondly that off-site content distribution is rapidly growing so naturally this removes unique visitors from their main sites. I would add that the main reason is that brands have not fundamentally grasped the reason why people use the web - for entertainment, information, conversation and participation - 90% of sites out there don't deliver on this - they are simply brochurewear, a brand information depository that adds no value to the user and hence provides no reason to visit in the first place or come back.

Some brands are, of course, acknowledging this - we always use Nike as the best wayof creating social utility with sites such as Nikeplus and the Ballers network - both great examples of a fantastic insight flawlessly delivered.

The sooner that brands understand and embrace this the sooner they will start becoming relevant to their bread and butter consumer.