WEB users are getting more "ruthless" when they go online, research reveals.
The annual report into Web habits by usability guru Jakob Nielsen shows people are becoming much less patient when they go online, BBC News reported over the weekend.
Instead of dawdling on websites, many users want simply to reach a site quickly, complete a task and leave, it said.
Most ignore efforts to make them linger and are suspicious of promotions designed to hold their attention.
"Web users have always been ruthless and now are even more so," Dr Nielsen told BBC.
"People want sites to get to the point, they have very little patience."
Success rates measuring whether people achieve what they set out to do online are now about 75 per cent, BBC cited Dr Nielsen as saying. In 1999, this figure stood at 60 per cent.
There were two reasons for the change, he said.
"The designs have become better but also users have become accustomed to that interactive environment," Dr Nielsen told BBC News.
This makes them very resistant to highlighted promotions or other editorial choices that try to distract them.
And they were getting very frustrated with all the extras, such as widgets and applications, which make pages take longer to load, said Dr Nielsen.
"I do not think sites appreciate that yet," added Dr Nielsen. "They still feel that their site is interesting and special."
There has also been a big change in the way that people get to the places, he said.
In 2004, about 40 per cent of people visited a homepage and then drilled down to where they wanted to go, while 60 per cent use a deep link that took them directly to a page or destination inside a site.
Now, said Dr Nielsen, 75 per cent of people search and get straight there.
"Search engines rule the Web," he told BBC.
But, he added, this did not mean that the search engines were doing a perfect job.
"In the long run, anyone who wants to beat Google just has to make a better search," he said.
