Google has the #1 app in terms of reach for 5 out of top 7 genres, while Facebook dominates social networking

Google properties occupy the top spot in five of the top seven genres, by reach. Facebook and Nimbuzz lead the social networking and chat genres respectively.

Google does well in time spent with the top app categories
Google apps dominate in terms of time spent for streaming video, GPS, email, and search. 94% of time spent on streaming video goes to YouTube, while 86% of time spent on GPS is with Google. However, when it comes to social networking and chat applications, Google struggles to obtain more than a few percentage points of time spent.

Google apps dominate across age groups
Google Apps have a fairly uniform usage across age groups indicating the success Google has had in establishing itself with all mobile users.

About Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights
Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights leverages innovative smartphone metering technology to provide insights into evolving consumption patterns of mobile device users. Based on accurate, real-time usage data, we help clients understand consumer behavior and develop product and marketing strategies. Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights maintains opt-in smartphone panels to generate syndicated reports, in addition to building custom panels and conducting custom surveys for clients. Our insights aid decision makers across various segments like operators, OEMs, publishers, advertisers, content creators and aggregators and application developers.

Overall 213 million Americans were active online in November 2011, and Nielsen estimated that over 274 million Americans were connected to the Internet.

For more insights and stats about how consumers use social media, please see Nielsen’s Q3 2011 Social Media Report

For more smartphone market data and insights about how consumer use their mobile devices, please see Nielsen’s Mobile Media Report for 2011.

Staying Social
Facebook’s popular app is the most active among Android owners 18-24 and 25-34, who both hover at around an 80 percent active reach. Additionally, more than three quarters of users 35-44 used the app recently as well.

Google’s YouTube app gets heavy usage from Android smartphone owners 18 -24: 64 percent have used it in the past 30 days, compared to 56 percent and 51 percent of 25-34 and 35-44 year olds. A preference for media apps with a social dimension (e.g. Words with Friends) among the 18-24 set is also reinforced by their sizable usage of music and video apps (e.g. Pandora) compared to older demographics.

Play Time
Not just for the kids, the ubiquitous game, Angry Birds, appeals more to those 35-44 when compared to other age groups: 35 percent of them have used the app in the last 30 days, while only 22 percent of those 18-24 and 29 percent of 25-34 year-olds launched the game.

Apps and More for Sale
Apart from gaming, the 35-44 segment demonstrates a greater inclination to shop using the Amazon AppStore: 24 percent of them used the app in the last 30 days, while only 14 percent of those 18-24 did the same. Groupon appeals more to those 25-34, not even making the top 20 ranking for those 18-24. A similar trend was found on Google+: active reach was higher for those 25 and older when compared to the 18-24 demographic.

Overall 210 million Americans were active on the Internet in September 2011, and Nielsen estimated that Internet access continued to grow, with over 275 million Americans connected as of September 2011.

While all sites in the Top 10 saw an increase in unique U.S. visitors during the month, Amazon had the largest increase (5.9%) among the top sites.  Visitors to Facebook’s website spent the most time on average, logging over 7 hours 45 minutes using the social network over the course of the month. AOL also increased the amount of time spent by average visitors on their site by over 25% during August.

Overall 215 million Americans were active on the Internet in August 2011, an increase of 1.2% compared to the previous month. On average Americans spent over 30 hours online during August and visited 99 unique domains. Nielsen estimates 275 million Americans had access to the Internet during August 2011.

* – Due to a change in the type of call used behind Facebook’s AJAX interface, Nielsen NetView data for Facebook duration was underreported for June and July, impacting overall web use figures for those months. Therefore, Time Spent and Page Views per Person for August should not be trended against July 2011 data.

In a media lab study conducted by Nielsen, participants viewed related content across a TV, computer, smartphone and tablet. A 15-second video ad promoting a premium sports sedan was shown to different groups with some people seeing no ads, and others seeing the ad on different combinations of screens.

In the group that was exposed to TV ads alone, 50 percent of people correctly attributed the ad to the correct auto brand. For groups that saw the ad across all screens – TV, computer, smartphone and tablet – the ability to remember the brand jumped dramatically to nearly three-in-four (74%).

Similarly, only 22 percent of the group exposed to just the TV ad was able to correctly remember that the ad was for a 4-door sedan versus 39 percent of the group that saw the ad across all screens.

While research shows that TV remains the strongest driver of awareness, the study demonstrates that the addition of online and mobile campaigns returns the highest overall brand impact.

Hybrid data extends beyond Home and Work PCs, and as a result of these measurement enhancements and the additional sources measured, metrics including Unique Audience, which Nielsen uses to rank the top web brands, witnessed changes in data for July. Therefore July data can not be trended, but moving forward Total Internet Audience data can be trended with previous months’ Total Internet Audience data.

Hybrid measurement combines Nielsen’s online panel, a people-based representative sample employed to measure consumer’s Internet behavior using Home and Work computers, with tag-based data from websites to account for Internet use from any source. Thanks to this hybrid approach, Nielsen’s Total Internet Audience metric includes web browsing activity from all devices, including mobile devices, tablets, secondary PCs and access points outside of home and work locations.

Overall 213 million Americans were active on the Internet in July 2011 from all sources included in hybrid measurement. Internet access through home and work PCs continued to grow to 249 million individuals in the U.S. during July 2011.

Overall web activity increased slightly in May, and among the Top 10 sites Apple witnessed the highest increase in monthly visitors, with more than 5.7 percent more uniques during May. Facebook also increased unique U.S. visitors by 4.7 percent compared to the prior month, with average visitors spending slightly less time (-0.8%) on their website in May.

Over 200 million Americans used their PCs in May 2011, and overall Internet use was up 2.8 percent from April. U.S. consumers also visited more unique sites (2.5%) compared to the previous month, and spent more time online on average (0.8%) in May. Internet access continues to grow during the month, with an estimated 246 million individuals in the U.S. having accessing to the Internet through Home/Work computers in May 2011.

While overall web activity decreased slightly in April, YouTube increased U.S. visitors over the prior month, with average visitors spending 2.9 percent more time on the website in April. Visitors to AOL’s network of sites also spent more time on average, about 5 percent longer during April.

While 194.8 million Americans went online in April, overall Internet use is down 2.4 percent from March. Not surprisingly, with the shorter month U.S. consumers spent slightly less time online on average (-3.8%) in April, and visited fewer unique sites compared to the month prior. Despite the slight monthly decline in time spent, Nielsen estimates that Internet access at home and work grew to 244 million individuals in the U.S. during April 2011.