Has the era of the DVD passed? 
Today, the likes of Netflix, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Veoh, and Hulu are betting it has.  Instead, they’re throwing their resources into developing a new video source: online streaming movies.
These new media titans may have the right idea, according to recent research by Nielsen that found online streaming video usage almost doubled in the U.S. between 2006 and 2007.  A separate survey conducted by Nielsen in 2007 found that 40% of respondents had streamed some type of video, while just over 10% had downloaded a …

For their respective nomination speeches at the conventions, Senator Barack Obama drew 38.3 million TV viewers compared to 37.2 million for Governor Sarah Palin. Tracking buzz via Nielsen Online the day after each speech, Obama again showed an edge with mentions in nearly 3.5% of all blog posts on August 29, compared to Palin’s peak of just north of 2.5% of all posts the day after her highly anticipated debut on the national stage. As reported previously, Palin’s announcement buzz overshadowed that of her rival Joe Biden as well as …

If attentive customer service is the hottest new marketing strategy, then a company’s employees are the key to brand building, Pete Blackshaw, Nielsen Online Executive Vice President, argues in his latest Ad Age column. 
Blackshaw cites the example of online shoe retailer Zappos.com, which makes customer service a priority.  The company is betting its customer-friendly ways will attract and retain loyal shoppers.
The benefits of that approach are evident, Blackshaw notes — though he warns that overhauling customer service strategies is no easy task.
“Getting this right is easier said than done. You …

Since John McCain’s announcement that his running mate would be Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, blogs have been buzzing about this little-known leader of the 49th state. According to Nielsen Online’s BuzzMetrics service, the Aug 29th event sent chatter about Palin well beyond that for her Democratic rival Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, whose announcement on August 22, impacted slightly more than 1.75% of all blog posts, compared with Palin’s peak above 2.25%. Even the impending Gulf Coast landfall of Hurricane Gustav on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina was overshadowed …

Olympic athletes broke 132 Olympics records and set 43 new world records during the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.
Meanwhile, Olympics fans who logged on to the Internet to follow the events around the clock set a new online precedent during the Games,  Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.
Olympics Web Portals
In the U.S., NBC, an official broadcast partner for the event, drew an average of 18 million (week one) to 18.9 million unique visitors (week two) to its Olympics website during the Games.
Yahoo’s Olympics section drove more traffic than NBC’s site, but visitors to NBCOlympics.com …

Google could soon be the search engine of choice for Verizon Wireless phones — that is, if the two companies hammer out a partnership deal in the next month or so, The New York Times reported Friday.
The growing popularity of sophisticated mobile phones with simplified Web searching makes the prospective deal with Google especially attractive for Verizon Wireless, the Times noted.
“There is demand for Google search despite what the carriers put in front of them,” Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst at Nielsen IAG, told the Times. “Consumers want brand names they know.”
The deal also makes …

During the second week of the Beijing Summer Olympics, American swimmer Michael Phelps continued to dominate online Olympics buzz, The New York Times reported Monday.
Between August 8 and 21, Phelps was the most-buzzed about Olympic athlete — with a 38% share of all blog posts about gold medal winners, according to Nielsen Online.
Jamaican runner Usain Bolt (5.04% share) and American gymnast Shawn Johnson (3.75% share) were the second and third most buzzed-about athletes, respectively, Nielsen reported.
Gymnast Nastia Liukin, basketball players Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, swimmers Jason Lezak and Alain …

With the national political conventions starting next week, pundits and the general public, alike, are scrutinizing Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s campaign strategies.
On Thursday, Nielsen joined the fray, releasing an analysis of the candidates’ online presence and buzz, their advertising campaigns, and TV viewership for past conventions. 
Online Audience and Videos Viewed
BarackObama.com’s unique audience was twice as large as JohnMcCain.com’s in both June and July 2008.  However, in July, the number of video streams on JohnMcCain.com more than doubled, possibly due to press coverage around Senator John McCain’s ad that compared …

Top U.S. newspaper websites saw more visits in July 2008 versus July 2007, but visitors spent less time on many of the sites, Editor & Publisher reported this week.
Nineteen of the top 30 newspaper websites recorded double-digit, year-over-year percentage increases in unique traffic in July, according to data from Nielsen Online.

Rank
Top 10 Websites
(ranked by unique users)
2008
Unique Traffic
2007 vs. 2008
% Change

1
NYTimes.com
19,513,000
38%

2
USATODAY.com
10,404,000
-2%

3
Washingtonpost.com
8,935,000
-2%

4
LA Times
8,750,000
66%

5
Wall Street Journal Online
8,716,000
94%

6
New York Post
4,937,000
25%

7
Boston.com
4,891,000
21%

8
SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle
4,503,000
25%

9
Daily News Online Edition
4,301,000
66%

10
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
3,985,000
64%

Source: The Nielsen Company (July 1 – July 31, 2008 and July 1 – July 31, 2007)

Ottaway Newspapers (+167%) …

New Zealanders are now more likely to surf the Web via broadband — rather than dial-up service, according to a new report released Tuesday by Nielsen.
The report found that in 2007, 54% of New Zealanders accessed the Internet via broadband — a significant increase that matches improvements in the country’s broadband coverage during the same time period.
Online social networking has also experienced growth in New Zealand, according to Nielsen.  As of the end of 2007, nearly half of all New Zealanders had visited Bebo, the country’s most popular social networking site.  …