Electronic Mail Drives Internet’s Growth

Buried in “Surf’s Down on the Net, Survey Says,” Jan. 12) is the real reason for the discrepancy between the results of the Find/SVP survey, which estimated 9.5 million Internet users, and the Nielsen survey, which counted nearly three times as many.

The Find/SVP survey “required each Internet user to name an . . . application other than e-mail . . . to be counted as a user.” So the Find/SVP survey did not measure Internet users--it measured World Wide Web users, along with the relatively few people who use FTP and Telnet.

Electronic mail has long been and continues to be the “killer application” which is driving the growth of the Internet.

SCOTT WYANT

Culver City