For starters, Web-goers are looking for jobs. And coupons.

There was a time when surfing the Web was considered a bit of a time-suck. You went online to e-mail funny YouTube videos to your friends or perhaps to settle a bet with the help of Google or IMDB. But, in these tough economic times, the Internet is much more utilitarian. According to a new report by Internet research firm comScore, the two areas that have grown the most in the past year are job searches and coupon sites.

The comScore 2008 Digital Year in Review is based on a global cross-section of 2 million internet users. With permission, the subjects’ Internet usage is confidentially tracked to determine what they’re searching for, looking at and buying online. In general, the report found that the U.S. internet population grew 4 percent in 2008 to 190.7 million visitors in December.

Not surprisingly, job search ranked as the top-gaining website category, growing 51 percent to almost 19 million visitors in December. Use of coupon websites increased by 46 percent during the year, reaching more than 31.5 million Americans in December.

But it’s not all work and no play. Online video viewing accounts for approximately 12.5 percent of total time spent on the Internet, an increase of 4 percent since November 2007, with about 40 percent of those video views originating on YouTube.

To view the whole comScore 2008 Digital Year in Review report for free, go to http://www.comscore.com/downloads/2008-digital-year-in-review.pdf