Android is still on a roll, according to new statistics from comScore, and if anything, the mobile operating system is picking up speed.  comScore puts Android’s February market share at an impressive 9.0 percent.

As the below table shows, that means Android’s made a lot of progress since November, when its market share was 3.8 percent.  And although the table doesn’t include data from the months in between, Android’s made a lot of progress since January, too, considering that comScore put its market share at just 7.1 percent at that point.

Smartphone adoption in the EU5 (U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy) has grown 32 percent compared to a year ago to 51.6 million subscribers, according to a new report from comScore.

Growth can bee seen across the range of monthly subscription fees, but the mid to low tier is growing faster that high tier subscriptions in each of the EU5 markets.

February was a quiet month for the search market; we’re not going to suggest any companies either break out the champagne or fire their CEOs as a result of the small changes that took place.  Still, for those who are curious, comScore believes it was Google and Bing that came out looking like winners.

Facebook and Twitter access via mobile browsers has grown by triple-digits in the past year, according to the latest research from comScore.

More than a quarter (30.8%) of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January, up 8.3 points from 22.5 percent one year ago.  Access to Facebook via mobile browser climbed 112 percent in the past year, while Twitter soared 347 percent.

comScore said today it has launched comScore Audience Advantage, described as a "digital audience optimization platform" that allows publishers to provide advertisers and media planners with the ability to reach their most valuable audiences.

In case you were wondering, Facebook is pretty popular. Google is of course the undisputed king of search market share, but Facebook has the edge in some areas. Social media is the obvious area.  While Google is hoping to make some serious headway here with Buzz, Facebook is far and away the dominant being in the world of social networks.

A few teasing emails may be on their way from Redmond to Mountain View and Sunnyvale this morning.  New comScore statistics shows that Bing managed to increase its share of the search market in January, while Google and Yahoo both lost ground.

Online retail spending in the U.S. in the fourth quarter reached $39 billion, a 3 percent increase compared to a year ago, according to the latest report from comScore.

Total retail ecommerce spending reached $129.8 billion in 2009, slightly lower than the previous year’s total of $130.1 billion.

In many ways, the last traces of the 2009 holiday season have disappeared – you won’t find many decorations up, presents out, or leftovers refrigerated (we hope).  comScore’s just released a report concerning the mobile market, though, and the stats are well worth examining.

The U.S. remains the largest search market worldwide, while Google holds on to a commanding position in the global search market, according to a new study from comScore.

"The global search market continues to grow at an extraordinary rate, with both highly developed and emerging markets contributing to the strong growth worldwide," said Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president.

Retail sites, shipping sites, and greeting cards sites all saw surges in traffic in December due to the holiday season, according to a new report from comScore.

"December proved to be a strong month for the retail category with Tuesday, Dec. 15 ranking as the heaviest online spending day of the year – and of all time – at $913 million," said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix.

Simply put, Facebook had a terrific 2009.  This afternoon, comScore provided some statistics that cover the entire year, and the easiest way to sum them up is by saying that double- or triple-digit growth occurred in an impressive eight out of ten categories.

Nielsen, Hitwise, and comScore are all in agreement, so onlookers can perhaps declare it official now: Google had a good December.  comScore, the member of the trio that most recently released its search market data, didn’t put Google up by a whole lot, though, and unlike the other firms, saw Bing gain ground.

Online music video service, Vevo, was the most visited U.S. website in the entertainment-music category in December with more than 35 million unique visitors, according to comScore.

Partners in Vevo include Universal Music Group, Sony Entertainment and investor Abu Dhabi Media Company. The site is powered by YouTube.

Vevo says its top ranking is an achievement because it did not launch until December 8 and it was not live for the full month of December, which comScore bases its results.

Online holiday spending during 2009 reached $29.1 billion, representing a four percent increase over the same period last year, according to a new report from comScore.

"The 2009 online holiday shopping season was a positive one as its growth rate slightly surpassed our forecast and returned to solidly positive rates after nearly a full year of marginally negative growth," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.

There may come a point at which Google’s popularity maxes out, but we haven’t reached it yet.  A new report from comScore concerning online video sites indicates that the search giant’s properties attracted considerably more eyeballs in November than the previous month.

Hulu had a good 2009, and to celebrate the end of it, the company’s CEO, Jason Kilar, has decided to share some stats.  Here’s a quick hint as to just how successful his organization was: to describe Hulu’s growth, the word "double" often doesn’t cut it.

Online retail websites experienced significant growth in November as the holiday season officially kicked off, according to a new report from comScore.

Online holiday shoppers have spent a total of $24.8 billion so far this season, representing a 4 percent increase over last year, according to the latest report from comScore.

The most recent week got off to a slightly sluggish start, with sales of $854 million on Green Monday (Dec.14) down 1 percent compared to a year ago, but was followed by three strong spending days that each surpassed $800 million. Tuesday, December 15 was a record spending day reaching $913 million, the first such day to surpass the $900 million mark.

In several key respects, the Android platform has almost caught up to the iPhone, according to new statistics from comScore.  There are still a lot more iPhones floating around in the great, wide world, of course, but otherwise, Android’s doing extremely well.

Let’s start with the table below.  It illustrates that, more than the average smartphone user, Android users do a lot of things other than talk.  This is important since it could mean that Android devices aren’t becoming buy-and-forget paperweights; owners actually enjoy using them.

Despite a number of positive developments, Yahoo did not have a very merry November according to the latest statistics from comScore.  In fact, as the company’s share of the search market dropped again, it hit an all-time low, landing at 17.5 percent.

Yes, Yahoo’s share of the search market shrunk from 18.0 percent in October to 17.5 percent in November, which counts as a sizable slip.  Yahoo’s biggest competitors, meanwhile, kept chugging along.