Women overtake men online

British women are spending longer than men on the web for the first time, according to new data from Internet Research firm NetValue.

A grand total of 5.8m women logged onto the web during May, an increase of 30% or 1.8 million women since the beginning of the year.

Women stayed online for an average of 462 minutes during May, while the men trailed behind at 414 minutes.

Men were typically far keener to get online than women, and once made up 60% of all internet users.

But the tide has steadily been turning, as sites specifically designed for women help to pull in the female audience.

Targeting women

Women also viewed a broader range of sites than their male counterparts.

Top five women's sites

handbag.com

icircle.com

ivillage.co.uk

femail.co.uk

ivillage.com

NetValue reports that women surfed their way through 412 unique pages in May, compared to the 347 clicked on by the men.

Women's websites are gaining in popularity, with 7.7% of all home internet users visiting one in May.

Handbag.com - which offers news, e-mail and online shopping - is the most popular women's site with a reach of 1.4% and 198,000 unique visitors in May.

The average visitor stayed for 16.9 minutes on the site, which is half owned by the UK chemists chain Boots.

But men's surfing habits are also being buoyed by the very sites that target an all female audience.

One third of all visitors of 'women's websites' are men.

The male love affair with the net is also being boosted by the Big Brother site, which attracted 600,000 visitors in the first week - 62% of them men.