Developers often rely on the web-based tools for
troubleshooting, collaboration, issue tracking, code reviewing,
documentation viewing, and a myriad of other uses. Developers
also use the web for non-development purposes, such as reading
news or social media. In this paper we explore whether web
usage is detriment to a developer’s focus on work from a sample
over 150 developers. Additionally, we investigate if highly-focused
developers use the web differently than other developers. Our
qualitative findings suggest highly-focused developers use the web
differently, but we are unable to predict a developer’s focused
based on web usage alone. Further quantitative findings suggest
that web usage does not have a negative impact on a developer’s
focus.