Did you know that out of the total 150 million internet users in the country, around 60 million women in India are now online and use the internet to manage their day to day life? Well, do not be surprised but through the internet, women are trying to carve out a niche for themselves. With easy access to this online medium at homes, cybercafes, offices and growing adoption of smartphones, the internet is being used by them for a variety of things? email, social networking and watching videos on YouTube. Importantly, they are leveraging the internet to do their own research for personal and household products before deciding on their final purchase. Pretty amazing, isn?t it?

In terms of top searched categories by women on Google in

India, apparels and accessories is the biggest search category followed by food and drink, baby care, hair care and skin care. The Mountain View, California-based internet firm, Google, recently released an interesting report titled ?Women & Web study? to understand internet usage pattern and its influence on purchase decisions of women internet users in India. The study was compiled by looking at search query data for top women oriented search categories in India and an independent online research done by TNS Australia, which reached out to over 1,000 women with access to internet in India.

The study revealed that skin care, hair care, food and drink were the fastest growing search categories, with queries coming from mobile phones growing rapidly and accounting for almost 25% of total query volumes in these categories. Among women who had access to the internet, over 50% said that internet research influenced their decision before finalising a product. In terms of most researched category and influence on final purchase decisions?internet influence was the highest for skin care (72%), baby care (69%) and hair care (65%) products.

The study found that Indian women who are online are from the rich families and younger. Three in four women in SEC AB are now

online and 75% are in the 15-34 age group, with over 24 million women accessing the internet daily.

Rajan Anandan, vice-president & managing director, Google

India says, ?With the internet user base growing rapidly in India, it is heartening to see that women user base is also increasing rapidly. With this report, it is clear that internet is empowering Indian women with easy access to information and helping them to make more informed decisions in their day-to-day life. The top generic searches and most searched brands reflect that women are heavily engaged on the internet and are using it to do online research before deciding on their final purchase for categories like skin, hair and baby care products.?

Today email, search and social networking were the biggest drivers for women. Downloading music, looking for educational content, job search, watching videos and consuming news were the other top activities, says the Google the survey.

E-commerce is rapidly growing in India and the report also indicates adoption of e-commerce by women in India, with 1 in 4 shoppers buying baby products online. Women also emerged as strong brand advocates with 80% saying that they recommend their purchases to other women and 25% stating that they share it online.

Video on the Web also emerged as one the key drivers of internet usage among women in India, with women accounting for 40% of the total monthly YouTube user base in India. Apart from music videos, TV shows and film content?beauty and fashion videos were popular among women on YouTube. Education, health and fitness, home care and cooking were also rated among the top 10 video content categories of choice on YouTube.

Thus all within the confines of her home, or on the move, with the click of the mouse the women are leveraging modern technology currently at their disposal.