The USC-Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future has released its sixth annual survey of the internet's overall impact.
 
Among the key findings relevant to interactive marketing and advertising: 

• The internet now outranks television as a source of information and entertainment for the vast majority of internet users 
• 35.5 percent of internet users say that they spend less time watching TV since they came online
• 68.1 percent of Americans use the internet at home
• Broadband penetration has reached 50 percent of the internet-using population (a conservative estimate, compared to numbers from some other research entities); dial-up modem use continues to plummet
• Even though online tasks can be accomplished faster on a broadband connection, broadband users spend more time online than dial-up users
• Email continues to be a dominant online activity, with 90 percent of online Americans using it, or 69.7 of all Americans
• Online purchasing rose to 51.1 percent-- the highest levels in the history of the study
• In 2006, online buyers spend an average of $50 more per month than in 2001.

More generally, online community and user-generated content continue to increase both in levels of participation and also in the significance of that participation to internet users. "43 percent of internet users who are members of online communities say that they 'feel as strongly' about their virtual community as they do about their real-world communities," the report highlights said, with 56.6 percent of participants logging into their communities at least once each day.
 
Relatedly, the number of blogging internet users has more than doubled in three years, from 3.2 percent in 2003 to 7.4 percent in 2006; 23.6 percent of internet users post photos online, up from 11 percent in 2003; and the number of users who maintain their own websites has grown steadily to 12.5 percent.
 
"More than a decade after the portals of the world wide web opened to the public, we are now witnessing the true emergence of the internet as the powerful personal and social phenomenon we knew it would become," said Dr. Jeffrey Cole, the center's director.
 
More highlights from the report can be found at www.digitalcenter.org.