Do you Wilf the Web?

The Internet has a new word to describe an online activity, according to a recent online article. It turns on the desperate phrase "Now what was I looking for?" usually uttered as a wistful question.

 

The article reports that in classic Internet fashion the phrase has been reduced to an acronym, turned into a verb, and given a new definition. In the UK, the act of wandering aimlessly through the Web's endless hyperlinks is now known as "wilfing" (What Was I Looking For!) and according to a British market research firm, wilfing is becoming a national epidemic.

 

The article goes on to provide some serious figures, quoting a YouGov plc study of 2 412 adults across Britain which found that more than two-thirds of Internet surfers admit to at least an occasional wilf, and nearly 25 percent estimate that they wilf more than 30 percent of the time they're online. That's the equivalent of two full workdays every month.

 

The survey discovered that shopping sites are the biggest motivation for wilfing, followed closely by news, travel sites and online casinos.