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In September 2009, nearly 27 billion hours were spent on the Internet globally by a record online population of 1.2 billion Internet users age 15 and older. Microsoft Sites accounted for 14.5 percent of total minutes spent online in September, making it the most engaging global property, with Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger representing nearly 70 percent of time spent on the property during the month.

Google Sites captured 9.3 percent of total minutes (2.5 billion hours), with YouTube accounting for nearly half of total time spent (1.2 billion hours) at the property. Yahoo! Sites ranked as the third most engaging Web property at 1.7 billion hours, followed by Facebook.com at 1.4 billion hours. Facebook’s share of attention reached 5.1 percent in September, an increase of 2.9 percentage points from the previous year, as its continued growth in popularity precipitated this surge in share.

  Top Global Properties Based on Total Hours
  September 2009 vs. September 2008
  Total Audience Age 15+ at Home/Work Locations*
  Source: comScore World Metrix
  -----------------------------
                                         Total Hours (MM)
                                         ---------------
                                Sep-2008        Sep-2009      % Change
                                --------        --------      --------
  Total Internet : Total
   Audience                       21,746          26,988            24
  ----------------------          ------          ------           ---
  Microsoft Sites                  2,734           3,920            43
  ---------------                  -----           -----           ---
  Google Sites                     1,703           2,512            48
  ------------                     -----           -----           ---
  Yahoo! Sites                     1,975           1,699           -14
  ------------                     -----           -----           ---
  Facebook.com                       474           1,387           193
  ------------                       ---           -----           ---
  Tencent Inc.                       589             893            52
  ------------                       ---             ---           ---
  AOL LLC                            584             513           -12
  -------                            ---             ---           ---
  eBay                               231             239             3
  ----                               ---             ---           ---
  Fox Interactive Media              361             204           -44
  ---------------------              ---             ---           ---
  Baidu.com Inc.                     175             163            -7
  --------------                     ---             ---           ---
  Lycos Sites                         59             107            81
  -----------                        ---             ---           ---

  *Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or
  access from mobile phones or PDAs.

  Global Regions Exhibit Different Preferences at Top Online Brands

A regional analysis of the top global properties in time spent by their visitors revealed different preferences across global markets. Microsoft Sites held the largest share of time spent among the top worldwide properties in Europe (16.8 percent), Latin America (35.9 percent) and the Middle East – Africa (33.1 percent). Yahoo! Sites captured the largest share of time in North America with 11.2 percent share, while also attracting a notable 7.9-percent share of time spent in the Asia Pacific region. Google Sites commanded a strong share of time spent in Latin America (19.4 percent), Middle East – Africa (9.7 percent), Europe (9.6 percent) and North America (9.1 percent). China’s Tencent Inc. captured the largest share of visitors’ time in Asia Pacific with a 10.7-percent share, but had negligible engagement in other worldwide regions.

  Share of Time Spent at Top 5 Global Properties Based on Total Minutes
  September 2009
  Total Audience Age 15+ at Home/Work Locations*
  Source: comScore World Metrix
  -----------------------------

                     Share (%) of Total Time Spent Online in Region
                     ----------------------------------------------
                                                                    Middle
                              North              Asia      Latin    East -
                 Worldwide   America   Europe   Pacific   America   Africa
                 ---------   -------   ------   -------   -------   ------
  Microsoft Sites  14.5%       8.6%     16.8%     6.4%      35.9%    33.1%
  ---------------  ----        ---      ----      ---       ----     ----
  Google Sites      9.3%       9.1%      9.6%     6.4%      19.4%     9.7%
  ------------      ---        ---       ---      ---       ----      ---
  Yahoo! Sites      6.3%      11.2%      2.0%     7.9%       2.1%     4.9%
  ------------      ---       ----       ---      ---        ---      ---
  Facebook.com      5.1%       6.0%      6.6%     2.4%       5.0%     8.0%
  ------------      ---        ---       ---      ---        ---      ---
  Tencent Inc.      3.3%       0.0%      0.0%    10.7%       0.0%     0.0%
  ------------      ---        ---       ---     ----        ---      ---

  *Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or
  access from mobile phones or PDAs.

"The Internet continues to be a dynamic and growing environment around the world with the global online population climbing more than 20 percent in the last year," said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. "With the U.S. economy only now emerging from a recession, many multinational corporations have shifted the focus of their growth strategies towards developing markets and the Internet represents an important aspect of those strategies. Understanding the global Internet landscape is the first step towards executing effective marketing strategies in these growing markets."

Hard to believe that just 15 years ago AOL ruled the world of the internet huh? Nope, there was no rumors of this Google thingy and Yahoo was just a bunch of links. However AOL was the place where you went to market to users, on AOL internet marketing ruled.

You wanted to get your brand on the internet, then you simply HAD to have a www.AOL.com/MyWidget address back in the day. You wanted to tap into the gigantic user base of AOL registrants? You would create an app using their proprietary platform…sound familiar?

Want more similarity? OK…My Mom, who is now over 70 years old now, got her first taste of computing by using AOL. For her, AOL was the INTERNET. She would say. "I saw thus-and-so on the internet", not understanding that what she was in was the AOL universe. She would NEVER click a link that brought up the standard warning message "You are about to be taken off of AOL to an unknown link" that would stop her dead in her browsing tracks.

Fast forward to 2009 and I am seeing the same thing. My family and friends who are FAR from technophiles are now using Facebook and for them, that "IS" the internet. This is their walled protective environment, but this time around the prison has a few windows to see out by linking to good stuff.

But what I find, by looking at their profiles, is that for the most part, they stay pretty much in the walled red zone. Almost NONE of them have links to stories outside of the safe domain of Facebook. The are simply not net savvy and Facebook is about the only place they desire to explore.

So John, what are you saying? …. Nothing, just contemplating the similarity….for now (stay tuned).