Research from comScore shows that vertical ad networks – those that target ads to specific online audiences based on demographic or category content (not unlike our own iEntry Network) – are increasing their reach.

Of those networks tracked by the research firm, the collective reach has increased from 21.5% of the total US Internet audience to 57.1% in a year’s time from March ’08 to March ’09.

Since its launch in January, WebProNews has regularly followed the growth of AOL’s MeidaGlow business unit, which has seen record growth with each month.

The U.S. Hispanic online population reached a record 20.3 million users in February 2009, representing 11 percent of the total U.S. online market, according to comScore.

During the past year, the growth of the U.S. Hispanic Internet audience outpaced that of the total U.S. online population in terms of number of visitors, time spent and pages viewed, as Hispanic online adoption and engagement accelerated.

Research from comScore shows that Twitter has jumped 131% in March to 9.3 million visitors in the U.S. This is an increase of 5 million visitors from February.

Facebook is now the sixth most popular Web site in the world with 275 million visitors in February, a 175 percent increase over the previous year, according to comScore.

Facebook has experienced strong growth in Europe, where the site has seen a 314 percent increase to nearly 100 million visitors.

comScore is sharing some research indicating that despite a recent study from the IAB and Price Waterhouse Coopers saying that display-related ad spending declined in Q4 2008, banner ad spending actually increased.

In February, nearly 74 percent of Japan’s online population visited an entertainment site, according to a new study from comScore.

Japanese Internet users spent nearly 15 percent of their total online time during the month on these sites, making the entertainment category one of the most popular and engaging content categories.

Tapulous’ Tap Tap Revenge was the most popular iPhone application in the Apple App Store in February, with 32 percent of users installing the game, according to the comScore Apple App Store Report.

"It’s impressive that a game like Tapulous’s Tap Tap Revenge can attract a higher penetration among Apple app users than apps for larger and more established brands," said Brian Jurutka, vice president, comScore.

Research from comScore found that out of the total Spanish Internet audience of 18.3 million people in February, 8.4 million or 46% visited an online newspaper site.

The majority (93%) of iPhone owners in the United Kingdom accessed mobile media in January, according to comScore.

Mobile email is used by 75 percent of British iPhone owners, making it the most popular type of mobile content consumed on the device.

"Consumers are clearly embracing the iPhone’s touch screen keyboard," said Alistair Hill, analyst, comScore. "The penetration of e-mail usage on the iPhone is more than double that of the smartphone category as a whole."

I recently discussed Twitter as a great source of traffic to sites, but the even more popular Facebook can do and is doing the same thing. In fact, reports have Facebook driving even more traffic than Google to some big-name sites.

comScore has released data from its monthly wireless ecommerce dashboard, which tracks consumer shopping and purchasing behavior, including handsets and mobile data plans, at all of the major wireless carrier sites.

In terms of overall dollar sales on the carriers’ Web sites, the flagship phones being sold were significant revenue generators. Three of the four flagship phones (Apple iPhone, HTC G1, and Blackberry Storm) ranked as the top revenue driver on their respective sites, even though they ranked just inside the top ten models in terms of unit volume.

Online video has grown by 10% in the UK in terms of its audience during the past year. It is up to 29.6 million unique viewers age 15 and older according to research from comScore.

4 billion videos were viewed online in the UK in January alone. 99.5 million (2.5%) of these were watched on the sites of the top 5 TV broadcasters: the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, and Sky. Here’s a look at the top online video properties:

The number of people using their mobile device to access news and information online more than doubled from January 2008 to January 2009, according to comScore.

Among the 63.2 million people who accessed news and information on their mobile devices in January 2009, 22.4 million (35%) did so daily; more than double the size of the audience last year.

In January, 6.8 billion searches were done in Japan, representing a 9 percent increase compared to a year ago and the highest monthly search volume on record.

Yahoo sites took the top spot in search with 3.5 billion searches during the month, up from 13 percent from the previous year, followed by Google sites with 2.6 billion searches (up 5%) and Rakuten with 153 million searches (up 38%). Excite Japan had the strongest growth of any search property in the top ten, growing 362 percent compared to a year ago to 52 million searches.

Searches for a number of terms related to the economic downturn have shown significant gains in the past year, according to comScore.

The most notable increases were searches relating to the declining job market, including searches using the term "unemployment" (up 206 percent to 8.2 million searches) and "unemployment benefits" (up 247 percent to 748,000 searches).

Due to the recession, the idea of a 0.3 percent drop sounds like nothing at all; plunges of 5, 10, and 20 percent are the norm now.  Still, Compete has released its description of the search market in January, and the report’s sure to turn a few heads with that exact figure. 

Tax related Web sites had the biggest gains in traffic in the month of January with a 176 percent increase to 24.7 million visitors, according to comScore.

Career and job search sites also saw strong growth during the month. The job search category was up 42 percent to 26.7 million visitors and the career category increased 26 percent to 48.9 million visitors. The growth in both categories can largely be attributed to the increased amount of job losses.

comScore’s statistics concerning the search market in January have been released, and while they may not quite turn the search world on its head, some people are likely to find them disorienting.   Google’s share, for example, went down. 

comScore released a couple of interesting reports today. The first involves the social networking landscape in Europe. According to comScore, France in particular had a big year when it comes to social networking, growing by 45% with Facebook as the leading network.

Don’t be surprised if members of the Google Maps team start to favor comScore over competing traffic-monitoring companies.  comScore may have just helped them secure some bonuses by putting Google Maps ahead of MapQuest in terms of unique visitors.