Rick Smith sends this report from comscore about world-wide Internet use.

Among the interesting findings is that

[Of] the top 15 countries ranked by average hours spent online per visitor for March 2006, as a measure of engagement[,] Israel led the list, with the average user spending 57.5 hours online during the month — twice as much time compared to the average person in the U.S., which did not rank in the top 15 countries. Rounding out the top 5 were Finland, South Korea, the Netherlands and Taiwan — all countries with high broadband penetration.

Failure to pursue a national policy on broadband access has cost the US much of our lead in world-wide Internet services. A variety of nation policy directions in the top 5 countries (and in China) has created economic and social benefits to their citizens.

On other findings, MSN, Google and Yahoo! lead in both unique access and in page views. MSN being first in accesses. Yahoo! leading in page views. Google is second in both categories. But Wikipedia has shown the greatest growth in both areas.

comscore’s site version of the press release “694 Million People Currently Use the Internet Worldwide According To comScore Networks” is on their site.