With the holiday season about to begin, Americans are already flocking online to do their shopping.
According to Nielsen Online, 78% of adult online consumers in the U.S. made a purchase via the Web within the previous six months.
Travel-related transactions were most common, with 38% of adult online consumers making at least one travel purchase on the Web in the previous six months.
Large percentages of online consumers also went online to manage their credit card accounts (36%) and conduct personal banking transactions (35%).

Rank
Top
Online Transaction Categories
(U.S. Adults)
Composition
Percentage
Reach
(in 000s)

1
Online Travel – Any (p/online 6 mo.)
38%
54,417

2
Credit …

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 …