For news, 69% of Americans expect to be able to find reliable, up-to-date news online; 85% of Internet users say this, compared with 43% of non-Internet users.

For health care information, 67% of Americans expect that they can find reliable information about health or medical conditions online; 81% of Internet users say this versus 45% of non-Internet users.

Overall, 84% of all Americans have an expectation of finding information online in at least one of these four topical areas. That translates into nearly all Internet users (97%) and most non-Internet users (64%).

When it comes to personal information, the story is different. Only 31% of Americans expect to be able to find reliable information about someone online; 35% of Internet users say this and 25% of non-users say this. However, 58% of Internet users say they expect to be able to reach someone via email.

In looking at how successful Internet users have been in finding the information they need online, the following chart shows how Internet users fare when they go online to satisfy information needs. Most of the time searchers in these categories find what they want - more than 70% in all categories. For news, 41% of online news hounds say they always find what they want on the Net.

There is also abundant evidence that the Internet is now the primary means by which many people get key information. Obviously this is good news for sites such as ours, but still, ten years after the Internet came into wide public view only 60% of the nation has access to hte Internet, and millions of those who do have access don't use it. We still have a way to go.