Silver Surfers are not the older generation who like to grab their boards to ride the waves but are those perched on their sofas ‘surfing’ the net.
These silver surfers are over fifty and their numbers have been steadily rising over the past few years.

In the UK there is the UK Online Measurement Company, which is part of the Nielsen research group.
UKOM found that in the year up to May 2010 there were 1.9 million new connections to the World Wide Web. That was comparing with 36.9 million in the same month last year, an increase of some 5%. Of those nearly two million new subscribers one million were over the age of fifty. That is fifty three percent of new signups to the Internet would be classed as silver surfers.

For the first time the majority of new signups were the older generation and of these over fifties there were more men than women. The majority of the older new users were men over 50 at 722000 or 38%. The older women over 50 accounted for 285000 or15%.

It is estimated that in the UK there are almost thirty nine million people connected to the Internet. According to UKOM, people over 50 now account for 31% of all internet users.

The analysis went on to show that after the silver surfers, the next group that showed the most growth was women aged between 21 and 34, who accounted for 272,000 new users or 14%. In third place were young girls between the ages of 12 and 20; they showed a total growth of 231,000 or 12% of the total.

Alex Burmaster of UKOM said: “The Internet is getting older in more ways than one. Not only is the medium itself maturing but the audience is shifting towards older age groups. This growth is a reminder, if one was still needed, that it is very much a form of media utilised by all age groups.”

He went on to say, “The fact that one in four Britons who use the Internet today are 50 to 64 years old proves it is no longer the sole preserve of the young and technical literati.”

As a result of this growing trend websites are increasingly geared to and target the older generation. They are not only more adventurous than the previous generation but also has for now plenty of disposable income.

The Utility Warehouse or Uwclub which provides Internet services in the UK has found a significant number of older people signing up for a broadband connection.

Many older people read, online and offline, leading consumer magazines. They take notice of what they say and this works to the advantage of Uwclub who rate, along with others, highly in them.

Again according to UKOM, they are attracted to a range of various sites, including travel, health, genealogy, fashion, cooking, community and video sites.

The top ten sites visited by the silver surfers in the UK were as follows.

1. Real age that is a health related site and almost ninety percent of its visitors are over fifty.

2. Saga is another popular site with a market share 78% of the over fifties.

3. Flixxy, which is a video site, is extremely popular and has over eighty percent of its traffic from the silver surfers.

4. W A Shearings who specialise in coach holidays is much visited by the over fifties.

5. Fifty Plus again the title speaks for its self.

6. Hand Picked Hotels for great times away.

7. Lurpak is a site for baking and cooking much loved by the older generation.

8. Jacquie Lawson is an electronic greetings card company and is well used by this age group.
9. Family Search is a genealogy site for family trees etc.

10. Cruise.co.uk is exactly what it says and offers various cruises to its visitors.

Another popular search is looking for Worldwide fast free Internet so that their Internet experience will be good value for money.

Many web-marketing companies who have traditionally gone after the younger groups now have to rethink their strategy in the light of the emerging figures.

Silver surfers are growing and increasingly spending their money online but they like to know that they are getting good value for their money.

Undoubtedly what applies in the UK applies throughout the rest of the world too.