The column below, by John Burbank, CEO, Nielsen Online, was recently published in Adweek.
Want a firsthand lesson in the health of the Internet? Ask a friend a simple question: “What’s your favorite online ad?”
Chances are they’ll have a tough time giving an answer. Some may mention a dancing girl seducing you to refinance a mortgage; others may bring up one of the online executions of the Mac vs. PC television campaign.
But many people cannot recall any online advertising, despite all the time each of us spends on the Web and …

With Nielsen Business Media’s Marketing to Men 18-34 conference convening in New York City Tuesday and Wednesday, Nielsen assembled a full round-up of TV, online, mobile, and gaming data to illuminate how these younger male consumers use media.
Television
-Men typically watch less TV than women their age — with one exception: male teens actually watch more TV than female teens.  Men ages 18 to 34 tend to watch more cable and pay channels, while women gravitate to broadcast networks.
-When it comes to sports programming on TV, men 18-34 are more attentive viewers (+12%) than women of the …

More than 1.9 million unique visitors in the U.S. visited the “Thank You” page associated with Google Chrome, Google’s new Web browser, following its launch during the first week of September, Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.
Seventy-three percent of Chrome’s visitors were men, with males 35-49 accounting for 39% of all traffic.  Female visitors were more likely to be in the 18-34 age group.
Overall, nearly 1.4% of all U.S. Internet users who went online from home or work between September 1 and September 7 visited the page, which typically indicates a download.

Web surfing is booming in China.  The New York Times and CNN.com reported Friday that China recently surpassed the U.S. to become the world’s biggest Internet population. 
In June, there were 253 million people online in China, the government reported Friday.  The new figures indicate that China’s Internet population grew by 56% in the last year. 
In comparison, the stories noted that the U.S. had approximately 223.1 million Internet users in June, according to Nielsen Online.