Brits ditching instant messaging for social networking sites

London, June 11 : Social networking sites have sounded the death knell for traditional instant messengers like Yahoo, MSN and Windows Live Messenger, with the latter's use falling by 25 per cent in the past year, industry figures have revealed.

According to figures, instant messaging has gone down by 25 per cent in the past year because of the growth of social networking sites, reports The Sun.

Experts have said that the time spent on messengers has nose-dived in the UK from 3.9billion minutes a month in April 2007 to 2.9billion this April.

Web analysts Nielsen Online, indicated that the Factors for this fall also include fears of "grooming" and a shift towards games and video sites.

In fact, there are many who have gone to social networking pages such as Facebook or Orkut.

The time spent on these social networking sites is increasing by 1.3billion minutes per month.

ANI