No-one, it seems, can escape the infinite grasp of the world wide web - not even those who have entered their second century.

Although most centenarians would appear content to live a low-tech life, three in every hundred have done a little research using the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia - and two in every hundred have Googled someone, according to a US study.

Three per cent, meanwhile have browsed the likes of Amazon to find a gift, and 2 per cent have used the internet to research a health topic.

When it comes to e-mail, usage is even higher: 7 per cent are familiar with the idea of an inbox and of those more than half have either sent or received digital photos. The internet more generally has been used by 12 per cent of those aged 100 or more, though that is still a stretch behind mobile phones, which have been embraced by 19 per cent.

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Texting is slower to catch on - only one in a hundred has tapped out a message on a phone. Twice that number have visited a political website.

The percentages may seem small, but it is worth bearing in mind that a person who turned turned 100 this year would have been 83 when the world wide web came into existence, 87 when Amazon launched its online store, 89 at the time of the first Google search, and 95 when Apple launched its music download service, iTunes.

The study, carried out on behalf of Evercare, a US healthcare provider, surveyed 100 centenarians by phone. According to the Office for National Statistics, there were 8,970 aged 100 or over in England and Wales in 2006 and that number is predicted to grow to 241,000 by 2051.

In a somewhat curious measure of technological awareness, the US researchers asked whether they knew who Steve Jobs - the chief executive of Apple - was. Three quarters said they did not.

They needn't have worried, though. Just over half of those aged 20 to 29 - who were surveyed as well - also did not recognise the name of the man who gave the world the iPod.

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