In the U.S., Google was the most popular website in March 2011, with 152 million unique visitors from home and work computers. Among the 10 most popular web brands, Facebook led in average time spent on site by U.S. visitors.

The Nielsen Company announced the development of Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings, which will for the first time provide audience data comparable to Nielsen’s television ratings.

Growth in consumers’ use of social media is changing the media landscape across the world. In Asia Pacific it has become increasingly important for advertisers to understand what is driving this change and leverage its growing popularity.

Along with its listing of the top brands and companies on the web for June 2010, The Nielsen Company also found that the average time spent online in the U.S. grew more than three percent compared to the previous month.

More than 10 billion videos were streamed in the U.S. in June 2010, a 1.3% increase over the number of streams last year and nearly a 4% jump over last month’s figures.

A follow-up study by NM Incite, a Nielsen McKinsey Company, found that in the first two weeks of the tournament Adidas had overtaken Nike, accounting for 25.1% share of World Cup buzz online compared to 14.4% before the event. Nike, meanwhile, dropped from 30.2% to 19.4%.

With a focus on how brands can listen and learn, Pete Blackshaw, EVP of Digital Strategic Services for Nielsen led a Consumer 360 insight session on the rapidly changing social media landscape.

The world now knows a little more about Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer. She runs in Nike shoes, wears Covergirl mascara and her kids eat Cheerios.

In May 2010, U.S. web surfers on average spent more than 54 hours online according to the latest statistics from The Nielsen Company.

The average web user in the U.S. spent nearly 60 hours online in April 2010.