Time spent on social networking sites is increasing steadily, taking users’ attention away from sites such as portals. According to comScore, the top 20% of social network users visit networking sites 2.4 times per day, on average, and spend 31 minutes on them—twice as long as the same users spend with e-mail or instant messaging. And that, in turn, means more time with ads.

The research firm’s “The State of Social Networks as a Media Platform” report found that more than one-fifth of online display ad impressions occurred on social networking sites in July 2009. That was more than double the display ads viewed on e-mail and entertainment sites.

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