comScore today provided some interesting insight into online video use in Germany. Among their findings was that the country had 28 million online video viewers watching over 3 billion videos in December.

Google sites completely dominated the market share at 51%. 1.7 billion videos were viewed on YouTube alone over the month. Here’s a look at where other web properties ranked:

The expression "healthy as a horse" doesn’t quite seem to apply; perhaps, post-Super Bowl, we could say "healthy as a team of Clydesdales" instead.  Regardless, MySpace has just passed on some user engagement statistics that are very impressive. 

The role the Internet plays surrounding Super Bowl Sunday activities continues to be an important one, with two-thirds of those who watched the game reporting they went online at some point during the day, according to comScore.

Around 41 percent of respondents said they used the Internet during the actual game, while 33 percent logged on during halftime. Some of their Internet-related activities on game day included going online to watch this years Super Bowl ads (12%), while 8 percent said they viewed previous years ads.

Social networking is attracting new users to the mobile Web in Europe. In November, 34 percent of mobile phone owners in Western Europe who visited social networking sites accessed social media exclusive of all other mobile Web content, according to comScore.

With 12.1 million users in Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K.), mobile social networking is a rapidly expanding category that grew 152 percent from November 2007 to November 2008.

The usage of online gaming sites has grown 27 percent during the past year to 86 million visitors in December 2008, while the total time spent playing online games increased 42 percent, according to comScore.

American’s total amount of Internet time spent playing online games grew from 3.7 percent in December to 4.9 percent in December 2008.

This news could be considered an effect of the recession, a victory of friendship over materialism, or just the culmination of a longstanding trend.  But regardless, fresh numbers from comScore have put Facebook over eBay in the UK. 

Job search was the fastest growing online category in the U.S. in 2008, according to comScore.

The job search category saw the number of visitors grow 51 percent to 18.8 million visitors. The final months of the year usually see a slow down in job searching activity because of the holidays, but were instead some of the most heavily trafficked months of 2008.

comScore is reporting that the total global Internet audience (age 15 and older from home and work computers) has surpassed 1 billion visitors in December 2008. Take a look at what share of that is in what region:

The holiday shopping season brought increased traffic to a number of categories including retail, shipping and weather sites, according to comScore Media Metrix.

Traffic to retail sites grew in December as consumers searched for holiday gifts and discounts. Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories jumped 30 percent to 25 million visitors to rank as the top-gaining category for the month.

The oldest email in any given person’s inbox probably confirms their account’s password.  After that, there may be some important note-to-self stuff.  But if the following messages are just moldy jokes or ancient conversations, some tidying up may be in order, and a new experiment in Gmail Labs should help.

Mark Zuckerberg might – just maybe – want to start considering how far in advance big entertainment acts need to be booked.  Because, according to new comScore stats, it looks like his social network could be celebrating an important victory over MySpace in about twelve months.

It’s likely to be a little while before Christmas traffic statistics start rolling in, but even without those numbers, it’s safe to state that Google Product Search is becoming more popular.  A measurement of growth extending through November has the service putting its rivals to shame.

Online holiday shopping continues to be on par with last year, with spending through December 14, totaling $20.17 billion, according to comScore.

For the first fourteen days beginning December 1 (Cyber Monday), sales totaled $9 billion, up 2 percent compared to a year ago. The most recent week saw ecommerce sales slipping 2 percent.

Online holiday retail spending has slowed slightly, but remains relatively solid according, to a new report from comScore.

For the holiday season through December 12, $19.44 billion has been spent online, about the same amount as last year. For the twelve days beginning with December 1 (Cyber Monday), the kick-off to the heaviest part of the online shopping season, sales totaled $8.26 billion up 3 percent compared to a year ago.

A little over a year ago, research showed that 44% of traffic to consumer packaged goods (CPG) sites came from search. These days, searchers are getting even more specific when searching for these kinds of items.

Sally Falkow looked at the phenomenon last year, referring to research from comScore, Procter & Gamble, Yahoo, and SEMPO. Highlights she pointed out about the motivation of searchers were:

Online holiday spending continues to be the one bright spot in the woeful economy, according to a new report from comScore.

For the holiday season through December 7, $15.63 billion has been spent online, about the same level compared to the same period last year. During the first week since Cyber Monday (December 1-December 7), sales totaled $4.45 billion, up 7 percent over a year ago.

Online holiday spending has now reached the same levels as last year thanks to Cyber Monday and the corresponding Tuesday, according to comScore.

For the holiday season through December 5, $14.92 billion has been spent online, about the same amount compared to the same period last year.

It’s officially over folks. We are going back to slide rules and abacuses. Throw away your computers because there is a report that in the first 23 days of November online sales overall is off – gulp- 4%. That’s right 4%.

Online retail spending in October grew by only 1 percent compared to October 2007, representing the lowest monthly growth rate since 2001, according to a report from comScore who began tracking ecommerce seven years ago.

The report said that the softness in online retail spending was due in part by negative spending growth in households earning less than $50,000 a year.

You may have heard that Yahoo News was the most popular site on the night of the United States Presidntial Election ten days ago. Now comScore has confirmed this along with some numbers for other sources making up the top five:

Auntie, as the BBC is sometimes known, has been shoved back.  In what may or may not be a sign of the apocalypse, comScore reports that Facebook passed the BBC’s network of sites in terms of UK traffic.

According to a statement, "Facebook.com broke into the top 5 most visited properties in the U.K. for the first time in its history in September, reaching 18.4 million visitors."  This puts it behind just eBay, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google.  The poor BBC came in sixth place with 18.2 million unique visitors.