So, you say you’re single and on the prowl for a new beau or suitor, but you just keep striking out date after date. Well, Yahoo has your answer for the best cities in America to find that special someone or that, God forbid, one-night-stand.

Austin, Texas is known for its eclectic music scene with everything from country to folk, metal to jazz, Austin is the city for all you music aficionados. If you’re looking for singles in Austin, you’re in luck because they make up over half of the Austin community.

Boston, Massachusetts is town for all you young college love-seekers. It’s a town brimming with young college aged people eager to date and fall in love. There are plenty of places to take a person, from pubs to music venues, it’s a melting pot of potential activities.

Chicago, Illinois is Another huge music city, but also, you have a large city full of life and comedy. Chicago is one of the top places to find comedy clubs, theaters and other entertainment venues. If you want a lady or a fellow with whom you can laugh, this is the place you want to visit.

Miami, Florida; The hottest beaches, clubs and people you can find. If you’re a party person or a beach bum, this is your destination. Club-goers and beach hoppers alike can get along in this tropic environment full of singles that are ready to mingle.

New Orleans, Louisiana, the classy french modeled town. New Orleans is a great looking town aesthetically by day, but come night fall it’s alive with action from jazz clubs to dance halls, party hot-spots to romantic views. So if you’re looking for a classy by day, crazy by night partner, look no further.

New York City, New York; the city that never sleeps; they say that for a reason. This place is non-stop hopping 24-7. Awesome fashion boutiques and sushi bars in the day time, happening night clubs in the dark, this is truly the city that never sleeps. So, if you’re searching for that fashion trendy, party-hardy partner, take a bite out of this big apple.

Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona. This is the place for all you adventure buffs out there. This place is prime to go hiking and desert trekking for days, but don’t stay gone in the wilds for too long because the twin cities offer great nightlife and spectacular restaurants. Find yourself an adventure loving soulmate here.

San Diego, California. From surfing to swimming, muscle beaches to sun tanning, this is another great town for all the pretty people out there. Great, sandy beaches and delicious eats all day and all night. For all you six-pack ab sporting men and blonde-haired voluptuous women out there looking for love, you may want to try this hot-spot.

San Francisco, California is a great place for the folks with an appetite for culture. Brimming with great museums, theaters and beautiful scenery, this is a spectacular place for those adults looking for someone grown and cultured.

Seattle, Washington is an awesome spot for all the coffee freaks out there. Seattle is another good place for culture and just all-around good feeling. From excellant wineries to choice fish markets, Seattle offers great adult tastes to those searching for something real.

So, you say you don’t like these places at all and you want to travel elsewhere. The Daily Beast did a similar report comparing different cites using statistics from the various locations. Their article has a few of the same cities, but they include a larger list of towns to “find love”. While Yahoo only lists their top ten, TDB lists 25 cities with interesting data and statistics to confirm their findings. Take for example, number 13 on their list, Richmond Virginia, data analysis says that 69% of the population is single men, while 71% consists of single women. The average salary of single folks in particular is a little over 30,000 dollars per year. You can take out a date pretty cheap with average ticket prices being just under 10 bucks and they give the city a “well-being” score of nearly 67%. You can see all the data and info in the link.

“3 weeks today, we’re totally in LA p****** people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin’ Marilyn Monroe up!”

He also tweeted, asking a follower a question:

“free this week for a quick gossip/prep before I go destroy America? x”

Upon arrival to the states, the two were detained for extensive questioning. Van Bryan was held in a cell with immigrant drug peddlers, while Bunting was detained in a separate cell. Van Bryan explained to authorities that the term “destroy” was British vernacular for “party”. The two were later released and sent home on a plane.

Both Bunting and Van Bryan feel U.S. officials took their seemingly innocent tweets too far. They say they were simply on holiday to America and just wanted to have some fun.

With this recent news, do you feel government has taken security too far or do you feel that you can never be too careful? Let us know in the comments.

The Infinite Dial 2010: Digital Platforms and the Future of Radio from Tom Webster on Vimeo.

The percentage of Americans age 12 and older who have a profile on one or more social networking Web sites has reached almost half (48 percent) of the population in 2010 – double the level from two years ago (24 percent in 2008).

Nearly one in four Americans has listened to audio from an iPod or other MP3 player connected to a car stereo: Although consumers often have to deal with myriad adapters and other barriers to in-car listening, 54 percent of iPod/MP3 player owners have listened to their device in their car; this equates to 24 percent of all persons age 12 and older having listened to an iPod(TM), iPhone(TM) or other MP3 player while connected to a car stereo.

Three in ten 12 to 24s are “very interested” in online radio in the car and on mobile devices: Among those age 12 to 24, 30 percent are “very interested” in listening to online radio in-car, while 28 percent are “very interested” in listening to online radio on mobile devices.

Consumers say radio station Web sites are improved but TV and print sites are leading the local battle: Nearly half of people age 12 and older give credit to radio for improvements in their Web sites.

Forty-eight percent say that radio station Web sites have gotten more interesting compared to 17 percent believing them to be worse or less interesting. However, monthly visitation to radio station Web sites (16 percent) among persons 12+ lags visitation to local TV and local newspaper Web sites.

A total of 1,753 persons were interviewed to investigate Americans’ use of digital platforms and new media. From January 25 to February 22, 2010, telephone interviews were conducted with respondents age 12 and older chosen at random from a national sample of Arbitron’s Fall 2009 survey diarykeepers and through random digit dialing (RDD) sampling in certain geographic areas where Arbitron diarykeepers were not available for the survey. Diarykeepers represent 51% of the completed interviews and RDD sampled respondents represent 49% of the completed interviews. The study includes a total of 371 cell phone interviews.

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According to the New York Times:

The average American consumes about 34 gigabytes of data and information each day — an increase of about 350 percent over nearly three decades according to a report published Wednesday by researchers at the University of California, San Diego.

According to calculations in the report, that daily information diet includes about 100,000 words, both those read in print and on the Web as well as those heard on television and the radio. By comparison, Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” contains about 460,000 words.

Phew! Sounds like a lot of stuff to stuff in. Now to be fair, this amount of information is not exclusively confined to the online space. The study looks at television, radio, the Web, text messages and video games. Now, I am not an online gamer so that last one has me a little bit confused since that activity often appears to serve the opposite effect of draining someone’s brain so feel free to yell at me and tell me I am wrong.

Television (another fine brain extraction tool which has done its damage on me over the years) takes up the first place in time committed daily that creates information overload clocking in at 5 hours a day.

Second is radio, which the average American listens to for about 2.2 hours a day. The computer comes in third, at just under two hours a day. Video games take up about an hour, and reading takes up 36 minutes.

While the report says that the printed word gets less attention the reality is that people are reading more than ever because of their online habits. Also, there is the phenomenon of much of this activity happening simultaneously as in texting while watching TV. It’s exhausting just thinking about it.

As Internet marketers these studies are important because there is just a ridiculous amount of competition for peoples’ attention. The resulting din of data and noise makes it even more important to find a way to get people at a time when THEY are ready to hear your message. The old intrusive selling model is growing less and less effective because people actually control their time more than ever as it relates to media. They engage when they want to engage where they want to engage. It used to be that you take what you get. Those days are gone.

So what is your technique to cut through the noise? Is the level of noise going to continue to increase thus making it more daunting to cut through or will there come a time when a person says “I can’t eat another gig!”

What’s your take?

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In July, Google Sites continued to rank as the top U.S. video property with a record 8.9 billion videos viewed, making up 42 percent of all videos viewed online. YouTube.com accounted for more than 99 percent of all videos viewed at the property. Viacom Digital ranked second with 812 million (3.8 percent) followed by Microsoft Sites with 631 million videos viewed (3.0 percent).

So Google leads the pack (yawn!) but Hulu reached an all time high with 454 million video views. Not bad. As for number of viewers Google logged 121 million viewers who averaged 74 videos a month.

Other notable findings from July 2009 include:

• The top video ad networks in terms of their actual delivered reach were: Tremor Video Network (20.1 percent viewer penetration), Brightroll Video Network (17.4 percent), and BroadbandEnterprises.com (14.4 percent).
• 81.0 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
• The average online video viewer watched 500 minutes of video, or 8.3 hours.
• 120.3 million viewers watched 8.9 billion videos on YouTube.com (74.1 videos per viewer).
• 48.2 million viewers watched 518.6 million videos on MySpace.com (10.8 videos per viewer).
• The average Hulu viewer watched 12.0 videos, totaling 1 hour and 13 minutes of videos per viewer.
• The duration of the average online video was 3.7 minutes.

I still marvel at the amount of video content consumed. My question is what percentage of it is stupid human tricks and the online version of the last words of every redneck, “Hey y’all watch this!”?

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The site features characters that lead users through interactive demonstrations of each online and mobile banking product. Customers can find information on how to access accounts, pay bills, transfer funds, locate branches or ATMs and receive account alert text messages on their mobile phone.

Customers can also see how to gather information and accounts for a clearer financial picture, all with layers of security to keep customers personal finance information protected.

Users can stay up to date on their finances by viewing checking, savings and credit card statements through online banking along with receiving electronic versions of current and past statements.

"Our customers lead mobile lives and they need a bank with options, products and features that can keep up with that fast pace," said Lance Drummond, eCommerce/ATM executive at Bank of America. "With Bank of America, all you need is Internet access through your computer or mobile phone to be connected to your finances anytime, anywhere."

Pogue’s opinion of, as he calls it, the big six conglomerates is very obvious, he sides with his fellow WGA members. 

The writer’s strike, no not the one back in 1988 but the one that started on November 5^th, 2007 continues to draw national attention.  Even big name actors joined in this week to bring more attention to the strike.

So if you’ve happened to be stuck in a hole for the past two weeks, here is what’s going on in California and New York. The Writers Guild of America decided to strike against the production companies and studios until negotiations are made between them.

What negotiations? The writers want a percentage of the profits made from the Internet, as well as a higher residual percentage of DVD’s sold.  They now receive .04% and are asking for .08%.  Yet that’s not all the writers’ want. They are asking to receive some kind of compensation from Internet sales and downloads.

“Our side is right. People are really invested in television, despite declining ratings, and they are pissed off.  They’re f***in pissed off and I think they should be,” said writer and blogger of plaintivewail.com, Stephen Falk.

When I interviewed Falk, he was actually walking the picketing lines. I had a hard time hearing him, but I could definitely hear all of the cars honking in the background in support of the WGA.

Besides his obvious anger towards the “big six,” Falk and Pogue urged television watchers to stop doing just that. They asked for the viewers to stop viewing and downloading shows on the Internet. 

We also talked with the press representative for the WGA East, Sherry Goldman of the Goldman Communications Group in New York City.  She told us basically what every other writer is saying.  She wasn’t sure when the strike would end, but hoped that the major companies would see the wrong in their doing and agree to meet again for negotiations.

So when will the two sides meet to talk things over? That is left up to the heads of both sides, and according to the majority of people we talked with; it could be quite awhile before that happens. 

Until the WGA and the “Big 6” meet again, you can say goodbye to new episodes of your favorite shows, including 24, and the shows related to current events like “The Late Show with David Letterman” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”

So until reality shows start bombing and there is a huge outcry to get “Grey’s Anatomy” back, you can kiss your shows goodbye for now.

For more details of the strike and for the exclusive interview with Charles Pogue, Sherry Goldman, and Stephen Falk, you can watch the video right here on WebProNews.

Kickstart comes to us courtesy of Yahoo, and intends to serve people who are either in college or graduated in the recent past.  Thanks to its focus on career development – Kickstart will try to put users in touch with well-placed alumni – it’s been compared to LinkedIn.

Kickstart doesn’t appear to be in a position to compete with LinkedIn, though.  One of three “featured companies” – Teach For America – has exactly zero “past and present employees” associated with Kickstart.  And even if Yahoo’s gotten 264 of its own people to sign up, less than half appear to have bothered with profile pictures.

As for the idea that Kickstart would compete with MySpace or Facebook, well . . .  Yahoo obviously has that in mind.  “Uncle Ron may work for IBM, but it doesn’t mean you want him writing on your wall or poking your friends,” states Kickstart’s homepage, in an obvious dig at Facebook.  But something that can’t keep up with LinkedIn won’t be able to touch either larger site.

Nonetheless, we’ll keep you up to date on Kickstart as it develops; there are some good ideas at work, and perhaps Yahoo will pull out a surprising success.

Newspaper Web site audiences accounted for 37.1 percent of active Internet users in the third quarter which is a 3.7 percent increase over the 56.9 million average over the previous year.

Visitors to newspaper Web sites generated 2.8 billion pageviews per month during the quarter, up from the 2.5 billion monthly average during the same period in 2006. Visitors spent an average of more than 43 minutes per month on newspaper web sites during the quarter, an increase of 4 percent over the 40 minutes in the prior year.

The Newspaper Association of America found that close to eight in 10 adults (77%) read a newspaper in print or online each week. The most popular newspaper sites, in terms of average number of unique visitors included the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, LA Times and the Boston Globe.

"As the newspaper industry moves toward measurement data reflecting the medium’s total reach and audience, this analysis is evidence of newspapers’ broad appeal in a highly competitive media marketplace," said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm.

"The study demonstrates newspapers’ unique ability to reach affluent, highly educated consumers who shop online and rely on newspaper advertising to guide key purchasing decisions."

Bank Of America Launches Social Network

The site is called the Small Business Online Community.  User’s can network with others, share their business stories, and find experts on a variety of topics.

"We want to be that trusted resource for small business owners, to help them grow their business and be with them when they grow," Mark Hogan, Bank of America’s president of small business banking told the AP. "And we want to help them anyway we can to make that process easier for them."

Hogan said the goal of the site is to offer small business owners a place to share information, learn from others and find answers to questions without having to worry about an influx of marketing.

"The good news for banks is that the market is wide open for anyone who has had the winning formula," said Deloitte principal Frank Sui. "The bad news is that the market is so abstruse that no single bank has yet to discover what that winning formula is."

The largest business social network is LinkedIn, which had about 10 million visitors last month according to Compete.com.