According to the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 51 percent of adults look to the Internet when looking for information on local restaurants, bars and clubs. I would love to hear from the 49 percent who don’t’ go online to get info. Does that means they get the info somewhere else or that they never look for info on local restaurants, bars and clubs?

The report actually indicates that people use the following:

• Internet: 51% of those who get information about local entertainment businesses rely most on some kind of online source for that material.
• Newspaper: 31% of them say they rely on newspaper material either in printed form or the website of their local newspaper for information about restaurants, bars, and clubs
• Word of mouth: 23% of them say they rely on other people most of all for news and information about for information about restaurants, bars, and clubs
• Local TV: 8% of them say they rely on TV for news about for information about restaurants, bars, and clubs – either broadcasts or the stations’ websites

For other businesses, 47 percent report using the Internet to get more info.

Kind of fun to read the full report – but important I think for restaurant and shop owners to recognize that half of their potential customers are going online to get info. And if Google is right that 60 percent of small businesses don’t have a web site – that means a lot of lost opportunity.