Two-thirds of the world’s Internet population visit social networking or blogging sites, accounting for almost 10% of all internet time, according to a new Nielsen report “Global Faces and Networked Places.” If data captured from December 2007 through December 2008 is any indication, that percentage is likely to grow as time spent on social network and blogging sites is growing more than three times the rate of overall Internet growth.
“Social networking has become a fundamental part of the global online experience,” commented John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen Online. “While two-thirds …

Chuck Schilling
Zynga is to Facebook as Clownfish Is to Sea Anemones
Social Networking is all the craze and Online Games are the guilty pleasure of almost half (46%) of all active web users, so it was only a matter of time before someone put the two together. Zynga, only a year old, focuses specifically on adding social elements to casual online games. Just as the symbiotic relationship between clownfish and sea anemones produces mutually beneficial results, so does that between Zynga and Facebook. Although Zynga offers games on other social networks, …

Online social network giants MySpace and Facebook battled for supremacy in 2008.  The trend lines below show the percentages of consumer-generated online discussions that mentioned each site between June and December:

Top social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn may be well-established, but that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped growing.
Nearly half of the biggest social networking sites are also among the fastest growing, according to data released Wednesday by Nielsen Online.
These top sites have also expanded beyond the youthful audience the social networking space initially captured — to find a place in older visitors’ professional lives.  Facebook, LinkedIn, and Reunion.com are most popular among visitors ages 25-34, 35-49, and 55-64, respectively, Nielsen reported.

Rank
(by Sept. YOY UA growth)
10 Fastest Growing
Social Networking Sites: Sept. 2008
Sept. 2007:
Unique Audience …

Social networking sites like Facebook.com, MySpace.com, Xanga, Bebo and online video sites like YouTube head InternetSafety.com’s list of ”Top 10 Online Time Wasters.”
But where does most of this time wasting occur?  At work, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported Tuesday, citing new research by Nielsen Online.
According to Nielsen, the greatest number of Internet videos are watched on weekdays between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. — when most people are at work.