“There is incredible demand for more accurate, reliable and high-quality Web audience measurement. Nielsen’s new panel is a huge leap forward in measurement to address that need,” said John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen’s online division. “Nielsen continues to strive to provide clients and the industry with the best, most insightful research possible. This enhanced platform enables us to do just that. One of the most exciting things about this new methodology is by including Nielsen’s TV/Internet convergence panel for online audience reporting, we are laying the foundation for better future cross-platform measurement.”

John Neitzel, Group Research Manager, for Microsoft Advertising noted: “We are excited to see Nielsen take this leap forward in the evolution of online measurement. In combination with increasing the number of sites, the new audience methodology will help ensure that a truly representative panel of the Internet is being measured, which can help improve online advertising effectiveness.”

For more on Nielsen’s expanded panel and methodology, read the complete media release.

Nielsen Online CEO John Burbank takes a look at the economic and advertising impacts of the report.

Highlights Of The Report Include

• The number of American users frequenting online video destinations has climbed 339 percent since 2003.
• Time spent on video sites has shot up almost 2,000 percent over the same period.
• In the last year alone, unique viewers of online video grew 10 percent, the number of streams grew 41 percent, the streams per user grew 27 percent and the total minutes engaged with online video grew 71 percent.
• There are 87 percent more online social media users now than in 2003, with 883 percent more time devoted to those sites.
• In the last year alone, time spent on social networking sites has surged 73 percent.
• In February, social network usage exceeded Web-based e-mail usage for the first time.

Read the full report.

Download the full press release