The Pew Internet and American Life Project found that somewhere between 2% and 7% of adult Internet users in the United States actually keep their own blogs. Of those, only about 10% update them daily, the majority doing so only once a week or less often.

The study was largely based on random telephone surveys of 1,555 Internet users taken from March 12 to May 20, 2003. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3%. That survey found only 2% of users keeping blogs, although a preliminary analysis of follow-up surveys from early 2004 showed the figure increasing to about 7%.

About 11% of Internet users report visiting blogs written by others. Most often, they were for blogs written by friends. But blog readers are more likely to go to journals kept by strangers rather than by family members. Among other findings: 21% of Internet users have posted photos on Web sites, and 20% say they have allowed others to download video or music files from their computers. 7% have webcams that let others see live pictures of them over the Net.

A recent survey done by InsightExpress found that 10% of online Americans currently use wireless technology. More than three in five (61%) home Wi-Fi users indicated that they are more productive, and almost two in five (38%) say they work more because of Wi-Fi. Similarly, Wi-Fi use outside the home is also on the wax. WiFi users who have accessed a Hot Spot outside their home (40%) signal real opportunities for restaurants, hotels, and other public businesses to attract customers. Almost half (45%) having accessed a public Hot Spot say they’re more likely to patronize a business that offers WiFi. Business opportunities don’t stop with public establishments, as more than half (51%) of Hot Spotters would choose an ISP with Hot Spot access over one without.

In the market for servers costing $250,000 and up, IBM’s mainframe revenue increased 30% to $1.8 bil from Q4 2002 to Q4 2003, according to Gartner. In contrast, the overall market for servers of that price grew 8% to $4.9 bil. For this price range, Gartner said mainframes dominated IBM’s revenue, accounting for $1.8 bil of the $2.83 bil the company garnered in the quarter. By comparison, HP’s sales rose 9% to $906 mil in the price range and Sun Microsystems’ dropped 16% to $420 mil.

42% of office workers graded their work space design a C. Another 10% rated their cubicle or office a D, and 4% gave it an F. Only 6% gave their space an A. Logitech this week released the results of the study, which surveyed 1,003 U.S. office workers. Those surveyed spent an average of 37.5 hours a week in their workspace, whether in an office, cubicle or shared space, according to the study. In all, office workers gave their respective spaces a 2.3 grade point average, the equivalent of a C+, Logitech said.

Telecom ad spending is expected to grow 5-6% this year, according to industry analysts.

Ukrainian ISP market grew to $120 mln in 2003, a 70% gain YTY. Currently the estimated number of users is 3.8 mln, which means 8% of Ukrainians are online. 15% of all users are broadband lsubscribers. 109,000 domain names were registered, which displays healthy growth pattern of 22% a year. 50% of Ukrainian Internet users are located in 6 largest cities. There are 300 ISPs, with Ukrainian Telecom, a government telephone monopoly, owning a large portion of the market.

Linux server shipments grew 63% to $950 mil from Q4 2002 to Q4 2003, IDC said. At the same time, unit shipments grew 53% to about 250,000. The top Linux seller was Hewlett-Packard, with 27.5% of the market. IBM had 21.1%, and Dell had 18.2%. While those companies account for the majority of sales globally, many small companies have niches, particularly in regions that rely on very localized versions of Linux.

Looser corporate technology budgets and a push by customers to replace aging machines drove worldwide sales of server computers up 11.4% in Q4 2003 YTY, according to IDC. Total server sales reached $13.7 billion in Q4 and $45.7 billion for the full year. Market-leader International Business Machines Corp. had a share of 37.9% in Q4, followed by HP with 25.8% share. For the full year, IBM led HP by about 4%.

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) is spending $1.8 billion to add at least 1.3 million new Fiber-to-the-Home subscribers over the next 12 months, bringing NTT’s total FTTH subscriber basis to over 2 million. Previously, NTT, the incumbent telco, has not been one of the more aggressive FTTH players in the past.

Chinese sent some 15.6 billion short messages through their mobile phones during January, a rise of 91% over the same period last year.

Merrill Lynch released survey results that show the majority of CIOs say they believe business is improving and CFOs can begin to loosen purse strings. Separately, IBM also recently published a survey based on 456 CEO interviews in which 80% of respondents said their primary objective has shifted from cost cutting to revenue growth. Nearly three-quarters of the 100 CIOs surveyed characterize their company’s business as getting better. And only 7% see things potentially getting worse. The report also noted that about 40% of CIOs are getting a little more cash from the CFOs. Thirty-four percent said they are “spending a bit more because we have not bought much for three years” and more than 20% described themselves as “ready to be aggressive in spending because we view tech as a differentiator.”

Sophos, an antivirus and anti-junk e-mail company, published its findings about top countries, where unwanted e-mail originates.

   1.  United States
   2. Canada
   3. China (& Hong Kong)
   4. South Korea
   5. Netherlands
   6. Brazil
   7. Germany
   8. France
   9. United Kingdom
  10. Australia
  11. Mexico
  12. Spain

Getting to work in New York, Chicago or Philadelphia takes longer than average, according to the latest US Government census information. Los Angeles is 4th worst city in the United States to commute, with Texas giants - Houston and Dallas splitting the 5th place. After that it’s Detroit, Phoenix, San Antonio and San Diego. The national average of traveling to work is 24.4 minutes. The best large cities to live in (the ones that spot commuter time below national average) are all Mid-Western: Toledo, Ohio (18.1 minutes), Lexington, Ky. (18.0), Oklahoma City, Okla. (17.8), Omaha, Neb. (17.3), Tulsa, Okla. (16.8) and Wichita, Kan. (16.5).

NPD reported on best-selling software products in 2003 (in amount sold, not dollar value):

1. TurboTax 2002 Deluxe

2. Norton Antivirus 2003
3. Turbo Tax 2002
4. Norton Antivirus 2004
5. TurboTax 2002 Multi State 45
6. Taxcut 2002 Deluxe Block
7. Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade
8. Microsoft Office XP Student and Teacher Edition
9. Taxcut 2002 State Block
10. Norton Internet Security 2003

A new survey finds that 69% of the largest 232 newspapers in the U.S. now offer the option of Web-only help-wanted advertising for employers, compared with 45% in January 2003. The findings were released today by New York-based market research company Corzen Inc.

Merrill Lynch believes the world PC market will grow 13% this year, the same rate of growth experienced in 2003, the company told investors yesterday. It originally had 2004 growth down as 11%, but raised its expectations on the back of “decent consumer showing and an improving corporate market” in the last quarter of last year. ML’s figures cast HP in the role of market leader, with 15.3% of the PCs sold around the world during Q3 2004 coming from that company. However, it warned that Dell could easily “leapfrog” HP during the first half of this year. Dell took 14.5% of the market.

Nearly 60% of adults in the US are familiar with Wi-Fi, reports Ipsos-Insight. An even greater number of respondents (72%) are familiar with wireless home networking (WHN).

Laptops accounted for more than 35% of all PCs sold in retail stores last year, up from 29% in 2002 and 23% in 2001, NPD TechWorld said. Measured in dollar terms, consumer desktop and notebook sales are even. The usual technology trends - faster, cheaper and better - have made notebooks more attractive and affordable. Consumer notebooks carried an average price tag of $1,329 in the fourth quarter of last year, down from $1,672 three years earlier.