n.
A person who indiscriminately consumes information obtained via the World Wide Web.
Example Citation:
"It would be OK if students saw the Internet as a delivery channel for information resources of various quality. But they don't. They are 'Websumers' — to them the Internet is a one stop shopping place where you can get information, even if you can't (or don't) distinguish between partial vs. complete, authoritative vs. dubious, biased vs. unbiased, old vs. current, or accurate vs. in accurate information."
— D. Scott Brandt, "Beyond 'Websumerism'," Computers in Libraries, May 1, 2001
Earliest Citation:
An increase in 'Web-sumers' has created a tremendous opportunity for companies providing online sales of everything from products to services. A key differentiator of the most visited online sites is the interactivity provided to site visitors. Typically, the more information provided, the easier the sale.
—"Interactive Pictures' IPIX images fly on the web and desktop with Intel's upcoming Pentium III processor," Business Wire, February 17, 1999
Notes:
Today's word is a ham-fisted blend of Web and consumer, thus continuing the trend of ugly lexical constructions for Web-based phenomena. Other examples that we've seen here in the past are Web-isode, Webology, and Webrarian (although the latter isn't so bad since the b in Web fits well with the b in lib (librarian).
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New words. 2013.