Most people globally who are online visit three types of websites once a week or more: a search engine (74%) such as Google, a social networking site (64%) such as Facebook, and a portal site for checking emails (55%) such as Gmail, according to a recent report by Ipsos.

Three other types of sites are visited regularly by four in ten of global respondents: a user-generated or upload site such as YouTube (44%), a news and information site such as CNN.com (42%), a weather site such as Weather.com (39%), and a shopping site such as Amazon.com (35%).

Approximately two in ten respondents said they regularly visit the following: an auction site (26%) such as eBay, a classifieds site (21%) such as Craigslist, an online music site (19%) such as iTunes, blogs in general (19%), a brand retail site (18%), a TV or video site (18%) such as Hulu, and a sports site (17%) such as ESPN.com.

The findings reflect data from an online survey of 18,503 global respondents.

Search engines were the most popular sites visited by respondents in most of the countries surveyed. Five countries, however, had more respondents who said they regularly visit social networking sites more often than search engines: Hungary (78%), Indonesia (78%), Mexico (77%), Russia (71%), and Saudi Arabia (70%).

Those most likely to say they regularly visit search engines were from Belgium (85%), Norway (85%), South Africa (85%), Turkey (83%), Australia (82%), Germany (82%), Great Britain (82%), and Poland (80%).

About the research: The report was based on data from an online survey conducted August 6-20, 2013. The 18,503 respondents came from 25 countries and were adults age 18-64 in the US and Canada, and age 16-64 in all other countries.