Fans worldwide are heading online to take advantage of around-the-clock access to updated Olympics content and video, Nielsen Online reported Tuesday.
During the first week of competition, an average of 930,000 fans per day, from ten countries in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, visited Beijing2008.cn, the official Website of the Beijing Games, according to Nielsen.  On several days during that period, traffic to the site exceeded one million unique visitors.
Within China, traffic to Beijing2008.cn, averaged 1.5 million unique browsers per day during the period, according to ChinaRank, Nielsen’s China-based Internet traffic measurement partner.

Country
Average …

Mobile data cards are no longer just for business travelers, a report released Tuesday by Nielsen Mobile reveals.
Of the 13 million mobile data card users in the U.S. as of Q2 2008, 43% most often use their data card at home, while 15% typically use the card at work, and just 9% use their card while commuting. 
Most of the 1,300 mobile card users Nielsen surveyed (99%) have kept their home Internet service providers, but 59% are considering swapping their cable, DSL, and other wired Interent service for exclusive data card …

British 18- to 20-year-olds most commonly visit student finance websites, while teens in the UK favor mobile social networking and online gaming sites, and children prefer fashion and entertainment sites, the Times of London and Brand Republic reported last week. 
Those results come from a recent Nielsen study that surveyed 40,000 British Internet users and identified websites with the highest concentrations of users in particular age groups.
Nearly half of all unique visitors (40%) to the websites for Student Loans Company, UCAS, and Student Finance Direct were between the ages of 18 and 22, Nielsen …

Heading into Thursday night’s women’s gymnastics individual all-around finals, American gymnast Shawn Johnson leads her top competitors in online buzz, according to Nielsen Online.
Fan buzz between July 28 and August 13 overwhelmingly focused on Johnson, who was more than twice as likely to be discussed by bloggers than her teammate Nastia Liukin. 
Liukin was ranked second on Nielsen’s list of the seven most buzzworthy gymnasts competing in the individual finals.  China’s Jiang Yuyuan rounded out the top three.

ATHLETE
COUNTRY
INDEX

Shawn Johnson
U.S.
100

Nastia Liukin
U.S.
43

Jiang Yuyuan
China
16

Anna Pavlova
Russia
11

Yang Yilin
China
11

Steliana Nistor
Romania
8

Ksenia Semenova
Russia
3

Source: The Nielsen Company (July 28, 2008 …

With digital coverage of the Beijing Olympics more ambitious than ever before and industry analysts issuing dire predictions of the death of TV, The Christian Science Monitor had to pop the question: “Is this the summer that the Internet finally kills television as we once knew it?”
Short answer: the jury is still out.  Monitor staff writer Gregory Lamb, who queried a range of experts on the topic, outlines the arguments on both sides, but steers clear of drawing any conclusions.
The story briefly addresses the prospects for video viewing via mobile …

Although it was a work day, online traffic to websites with Olympics-related content and video soared on Monday, August 11, according to Nielsen Online. 
Unique visitors to the video section of NBC’s Olympics site increased by nearly 140% – from 858,000 on Sunday, August 10, to 2,030,000 on Monday, August 11, Nielsen reported.
Meanwhile, traffic to Yahoo’s Olympics section grew 85% on Monday, compared to daily web traffic the prior day.

Rank:
U.A., Aug. 11
Website
Unique Audience:
Aug. 8
(in 000’s)
Unique Audience:
Aug. 9
(in 000’s)
Unique Audience:
Aug. 10
(in 000’s)
Unique Audience:
Aug. 11
(in 000’s)

1
Yahoo Olympics
1,477
3,324
2,839
5,253

2
NBC Olympics
2,664
4,008
3,264
4,560

3
AOL Olympics
395
1,010
1,205
1,192

4
Sports Illustrated Olympics
293
331
667
646

5
Beijing2008.cn
429
780
581
607

6
New York Times Olympics
341
466
301
482

7
ESPN Olympics
273
343
579
368

8
Fox Sports on MSN Olympics
49
95
259
182

9
USA Today Olympics
280
184
231
163

10
CBS …

American swimmer Michael Phelps’ quest for a gold medal record has captivated fans — and bloggers.
During the first week of the Olymipcs, Phelps was the most buzzed-about athlete, according to Nielsen Online, which analyzed online discussion of more than 50 high profile athletes competing in basketball, gymnastics, beach volleyball, and swimming events.
Basketball players Yao Ming, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James, as well as American swimmer Dara Torres rounded out the top five in Nielsen’s ranking of the most buzzworthy Olympic athletes. 
Overall, swimmers and basketball players received the lion’s share of …

Small businesses are especially dependent on favorable testimonials — and for many consumers, online forums have become the favored means of sharing feedback about businesses and products.
“About 60% of Americans are putting content on the Web, and it can affect how your product or service is perceived in the marketplace,” Pete Blackshaw, Nielsen Online’s EVP of Digital Strategic Services, told Fortune Small Business in a recent Q&A.  “Consumers trust each other more than they trust advertisers or businesses.  The question is, how do you turn it to your advantage?”
In general, …

Google and Yahoo! were again the number one- and number two-ranked Web brands in July, according to Nielsen Online.

Rank
Brand
Unique Audience

1
Google
123,161,000

2
Yahoo!
116,178,000

3
MSN/Windows Live
99,512,000

4
Microsoft
92,318,000

5
AOL Media Network
91,776,000

6
YouTube
74,809,000

7
Fox Interactive Media
70,103,000

8
eBay
56,111,000

9
Wikipedia
51,786,000

10
Apple
50,694,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (July 1 – 31, 2008)

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Mobile Internet users in the growing Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) mobile markets are likely to visit entertainment-themed websites while on the go, according to a report released Tuesday by Nielsen.
Meanwhile users across the U.S. and Europe commonly use their phones to access news and information online, Nielsen found. 
Entertainment, gaming, and music websites rank among the top five categories visited via the mobile Web in all four BRIC countries, while email, weather, news, and search are the top categories for both American and European mobile Internet users. 
In the U.S., entertainment, …