News sites like MSNBC, the Huffington Post, Fox News, ABC, and the Washington Post, all saw significant gains in traffic with pre-election coverage according to Nielsen Online, which compared October 2008 visits with stats from October 2007.
MSNBC Digital Network topped the list of news sites with nearly 41M unique visitors, a 37% jump from the prior year.
The news/opinion site the Huffington Post placed 18th on the list, but showed the greatest traffic gain. It’s 8.1M unique readers for October 2008 was a 448% improvement over the prior year.
CNN, Yahoo!, AOL, …

CBS’s “CSI” and “Survivor: Gabon” were the number one-ranked and number three-ranked primetime telecasts on broadcast TV for Thursday, November 13, 2008.
ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” was sandwiched in between the two, in secone place.

Rank
Program
Network
Viewers (P2+)

1
CSI
CBS
19,050,000

2
GREY’S ANATOMY-THU 9PM
ABC
14,902,000

3
SURVIVOR: GABON
CBS
12,885,000

4
ELEVENTH HOUR
CBS
11,627,000

5
E.R.
NBC
9,900,000

6
OFFICE
NBC
8,296,000

7
UGLY BETTY
ABC
8,247,000

8
LIFE ON MARS
ABC
7,968,000

9
30 ROCK
NBC
7,602,000

10
MY NAME IS EARL
NBC
7,045,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (November 13, 2008).

Overall, CBS won the night with an average audience of almost 14.6 million viewers,
while ABC took second place with almost 10.4 million average viewers. NBC and FOX
claimed third and fourth places with roughly 8.0 million and 4.7 million average viewers,
respectively. …

Jon Stewart
It seems there has been a lot of discussion lately about the cloud, and questions of a looming shift in computing. I find the most interesting discussion to be the one that surrounds Internet applications that have traditionally been considered desktop apps. If consumers move toward accessing traditional software in this way, it will signify a major shift. Our entire PC experience could change. But it is hard to picture this future with so few real world examples at present. If a shift happens, when will it be? Five …

The CMA Awards, aired on ABC, were the number one-ranked primetime telecast on broadcast TV for Wednesday, November 12, 2008.
CBS’s “Criminal Minds” and “CSI: NY” rounded out the top three.

Rank
Program
Network
Viewers (P2+)

1
CMA AWARDS(S)-11/12/2008
ABC
15,905,000

2
CRIMINAL MINDS
CBS
14,833,000

3
CSI: NY
CBS
11,624,000

4
BONES
FOX
10,868,000

5
LAW AND ORDER
NBC
7,933,000

6
OLD CHRISTINE
CBS
6,817,000

7
GARY UNMARRIED
CBS
6,607,000

8
HOUSE-WED 9P
FOX
6,216,000

9
LIFE
NBC
5,809,000

10
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE WED
UNI
5,546,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (November 12, 2008).

Overall, ABC won the night with an average audience of almost 15.9 million viewers,
while CBS took second place with almost 11.1 million average viewers. FOX and NBC
claimed third and fourth places with roughly 8.5 million and 6.4 million average viewers,
respectively. Univision and the CW …

Google was the top-ranked Web brand in October, drawing more than 122 million unique visitors during the month, Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.
Yahoo! and MSN/Windows Live rounded out the top three, with unique audiences of just over 116 million and 102 million visitors, respectively.

Rank
Top Web Brands
Unique Audience
(in 000s)
Time Per Person
(hh:mm:ss)

1
Google
122,325
1:23:07

2
Yahoo!
116,078
3:23:29

3
MSN/Windows Live
102,494
2:23:27

4
Microsoft
92,348
0:45:54

5
AOL Media Network
88,028
3:34:41

6
YouTube
77,480
0:53:25

7
Fox Interactive Media
67,182
1:37:12

8
Wikipedia
56,896
0:20:07

9
Apple
49,340
0:58:34

10
eBay
49,213
1:47:26

Source: The Nielsen Company (October 2008).

View the full press release.
View the top U.S. Web brands for September 2008.

At the end of Q3 2008, Nielsen estimates that there are 3.6M mobile subscribers Apple’s iPhone (U.S.-based over 13), giving the device a 3% market share in the mobile business. Growth seems evident as one in five subscribers (21%) who intend to upgrade their mobile device in the next 12 months say they’ll consider purchasing an iPhone next – up from just 15% last year. In addition to Apple and AT&T’s combined 36M advertising campaign, what may be driving this growth is unmatched customer satisfaction. In Q3 2008, 89% of …

With the holiday season about to begin, Americans are already flocking online to do their shopping.
According to Nielsen Online, 78% of adult online consumers in the U.S. made a purchase via the Web within the previous six months.
Travel-related transactions were most common, with 38% of adult online consumers making at least one travel purchase on the Web in the previous six months.
Large percentages of online consumers also went online to manage their credit card accounts (36%) and conduct personal banking transactions (35%).

Rank
Top
Online Transaction Categories
(U.S. Adults)
Composition
Percentage
Reach
(in 000s)

1
Online Travel – Any (p/online 6 mo.)
38%
54,417

2
Credit …

Troubled U.S. automakers are pleading their case for a government “bailout,” but American consumers would rather discuss future vehicle news and concepts from luxury automakers.
An analysis of auto-related blog discussions released Tuesday by Nielsen Online found online buzz in October spiked around BMW’s X1 Concept, Lexus’s IS 250C, and Acura’s first V8 engine.
The “Meet the Beckers” series and content from the Lexus L-Studio site were the top consumer-cited videos for October.

Despite the tough economic climate, British value retailer Asda is thriving.
According to Nielsen, the chain increased its market share from 14.9% a year ago to 15.6% during the last quarter — the retailer’s highest ever market share, aside from the Christmas 2007 season.
Asda’s performance (8.7% sales growth) during the most recent 12-week period ending November 1, 2008 easily bested the rest of the British grocery market, Nielsen reported Tuesday.  The chain showed especially strong growth during October, when the global financial crisis reached a boiling point.

CBS’s “NCIS” and “The Mentalist” were the number one and number three-ranked primetime telecasts on broadcast TV for Tuesday, November 11, 2008.
ABC’s “Dancing W/Stars Results” was sandwiched in between the two, in second place.

Rank
Program
Network
Viewers (P2+)

1
NCIS
CBS
18,745,000

2
DANCING W/STARS RESULTS
ABC
16,521,000

3
MENTALIST, THE
CBS
16,516,000

4
HOUSE
FOX
13,062,000

5
WITHOUT A TRACE
CBS
12,232,000

6
DANCING W/STARS RECAP #4(S)-11/11/2008
ABC
10,320,000

7
LAW AND ORDER:SVU
NBC
9,419,000

8
FRINGE
FOX
8,612,000

9
BIGGEST LOSER 6
NBC
8,101,000

10
ELI STONE
ABC
7,005,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (November 11, 2008).

Overall, CBS won the night with an average audience of almost 15.8 million viewers,
while ABC took second place with almost 11.4 million average viewers. FOX and NBC
claimed third and fourth places with roughly 10.9 million and 8.5 …