NEW YORK So what links are Twitterers actually clicking on? Based on a user sample released Friday by Chitika, an online ad network, Twitter users most frequently accessed links directing to information about current events and news (28.49 percent).
The sample consisted of about 974,000 impressions collected from Sept. 1-7.
Movie-related sites came in second with 22.56 percent of referrals, while technology and medical sites followed with 13.39 percent and 7.98 percent, respectively. Other sites included video games (4.64 percent), celebrity (3.94 percent) and how-to (2.88 percent).
"I think you get a bit of an insight into the psychology of the different users of social networks. Twitterers want to be the first to know," said Daniel Ruby, research director, online insights, Chitika. "They want to be the source of new news and new information, whether that's a new product being released, or something that's happening in the Middle East, or the latest crazy thing that Kanye West has done."
Facebook users, however, had different needs. On Facebook, users were most likely to click technology sites, which made up a third of referrals. Lifestyle (18.29 percent), news (18.25 percent) and how-to (4.55 percent) sites followed. Other sites included movies (2.96 percent) and medical (2.62 percent).
Technology links were nearly twice as popular among Digg users, which totaled 57.38 percent of referrals. Celebrity sites ranked No. 2 at 12.39 percent and lifestyle came in third at 8.96 percent. News sites only made up 4.92 percent of referrals, while movies totaled 1.08 percent.
