33% of internet users has a profile on a social networking site such as Facebook or MySpace, and 40% of these (representing 10% of all adults) have used these sites to engage in political activity of some kind, according to Pew Internet Project.

Scarborough Sports Marketing reveals that people in Denver, CO and Spokane, WA might be looking forward to the start of the games more than any other city in the country. These two cities are the top U.S. markets for Summer Olympics Fans. Sixty-seven% of adults in each of these cities have identified themselves as “very, somewhat or a little bit” interested in the Summer Olympics. Nationally, 57% of adults are Summer Olympics Fans. In Chicago, a finalist host city for the 2016 summer games, consumers are slightly more likely to be Summer Olympics Fans, with 59% of adults there saying they are fans of this sporting event.

IMMI has found that up to 20% of episodic content viewing occurs online, depending on the genre of the content and the amount of time the show has been on the air. The most common observation are panelists who first watch a television show live then watch at least one episode later online (41%). The second largest group for this particular network were those who first watch a show delayed then online (31%) at a later date.

Comparing online viewers to live viewers we see that the two largest groups are 25 to 44 year olds making up 58.4% of online viewers. While the common belief is 13 to 24 year olds are the ones consuming online episodic content, we find the exact opposite is the case with only 19.1% of 13-24 year olds viewing primetime shows online.

Looking at gender we see there is a slight shift with females (55%) more inclined to watch primetime episodes online than males (45%). After investigating live primetime viewing we see an equal distribution of males to females.

Primetime network shows are primarily consumed online by Caucasians (76.8%), with Hispanics being the second largest group at 10.5%. Caucasians are 21% more likely to watch episodes online. African Americans are less than half as likely to watch episodes online. There is no noticeable difference among Asians.

When analyzed viewership by income groups we see that online viewers are more affluent than live network primetime viewers. For those who earn $40,000 a year or less are 75% more likely to watch a primetime network show live than online. Those households that earn $80,000 a year or more are 56% more likely to watch a network show online.

The UK PC market demonstrated solid performance in Q1 2008, as overall PC shipments for the quarter reached more than 3.25 mln units, an increase of 14.3% YOY. Mobility continued to be the key driver, as the notebook market grew by a very healthy 41.8%, thanks to renewals, further expansion of the installed base to new buyers, and multiple-equipment purchases. According to IDC, notebook shipment levels are set to show growth levels of 35.5% in 2008, while desktop volumes are expected to sink further, with an annual decline of -8.3%.

According to IDC, the volume of shipments of multifunctional peripherals (MFPs) in 2008 in Romania reached almost 250,000 units, which represents 24% YTY growth.

According to IDC the identity and access management (IAM) market in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) was valued at $89.4 mln in 2007. The market is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.1% to reach $189.3 mln by 2012.

32% of small and medium businesses in the United States and Canada have been attacked more than four times by cybercriminals in the last three years, MCAfee said. 26% of those attacked took at least a week to recover, a devastating length of time to be offline for small businesses who conduct business and sales via the Web. Recovery time in Canada was even greater, with a third (36%) taking a week or more to fully restore their systems. 44% think cybercrime is only an issue for larger organizations and believe it does not affect them. 52% of businesses believe that because they are not well-known so cybercriminals will not specifically target them. Almost half (45%) do not think they are a ‘valuable target’ for cybercriminals. 46% do not think they can be a source of profit for cybercriminals. SMBs may not be as safe from security attacks as they think. 88% of respondents believed they were ‘adequately protected,’ yet 43% of them admitted that they simply accept the default settings on their IT equipment, settings which are often not in line with their specific business needs.

According to IDC, total spending in Network services (which includes Network Consulting & Integration Services (NCIS) and Network Management) will grow from $4.7 bln in 2007 to $9.1 bln in 2012 at a compound annual growth rate of 13.7% from 2007-2012.

Roughly 1.4 bln people ill use the Internet on a regular basis in 2008. This number is expected to surpass 1.9 bln unique users, or 30% of the world’s population, in 2012, according to IDC. Users will access the Internet through more than 1.5 bln devices worldwide in 2008, including PCs, mobile phones, and online videogame consoles. By 2012, the number of devices accessing the Internet will double to more than 3 bln, half of which will be mobile devices.

Worldwide spending on Internet advertising will total 65.2 bln USD in 2008, which is nearly 10% of all ad spending across all media, according to IDC. This share is expected to reach 13.6% by 2011 as Internet ad spending grows to $106.6 bln worldwide.

China’s online population is forecast to grow from 275 mln users in 2008 to 375 mln users in 2012, according to IDC. Nearly half of all Internet users will make online purchases in 2008. By 2012, there will be more than 1 bln online buyers worldwide making business to consumer transactions worth $1.2 trillion. Business to business e-commerce will be ten times larger, reaching $12.4 trillion worldwide in 2012.

Worldwide consumer broadband connections will grow from 323 mln connections in 2007 to 499 mln in 2012, according to Gartner. Worldwide consumer broadband connections penetrated 18% of households in 2007, and by 2012, households with a broadband connection will reach 25%. Five countries exceeded 60% broadband penetration into the home in 2007; and, this is expected to grow to 17 countries by 2012. The five countries with broadband penetration into the home above 60% are Canada, Netherlands, Switzerland, South Korea and Hong Kong.

There were 253 mln Chinese Internet users in June 2008, China Internet Network Information Centre reported. Internet penetration in China is still at 19.1%. 214 mln, or 84.7% of all users, are connecting via broadband.