This article examines certain relations between publics and users. The first part considers several zones of theoretical, problematical or conceptual convergence between the public and users. These common territories are situated on a passive-active continuum and a micro-macro continuum. The second part outlines three directions for research on user publics: the decoding of media constructions by 'the user'?; interactions between users of the Web and 'imagined publics'? (Dayan); and the public as a socio-political expression of users. These hybrid research topics attest to the fact that the concept of a public, far from being outdated in the ICT age, can be critically and constructively analysed in studies of users.