The report is an analysis of Internet Service Provider market share within businesses in the country. AT&T leads with 20% market share of all browser-based Internet page views.

Verizon came in second place with 12% share, followed by CenturyLink with 7%. The five largest business ISPs drove about 50% of business Internet traffic.

“The current state of the domestic business ISP market reveals a landscape led by a couple of top providers. However, even with smaller carriers contributing only a fraction of the traffic delivered by top carriers, the business ISP market is still more competitive than the residential ISP market,” said Greg Mishkin, comScore VP of Telecom and Wireless. “The small business segment is even more competitive among ISPs, highlighting the need for providers to develop strong marketing strategies to ensure they can retain and grow market share.”

Still, AT&T leads the pack across all sizes of business: large, small and medium-sized:

The top five ISPs account for nearly 70% of all traffic for large businesses. The percentage goes down, however, the smaller you go. The number is 56% for medium-sized businesses and 40% for small.

On the whole social media (blogs included) is a part of 80% of internet users’ lives. And people aren’t just members of social networking sites, but they are interacting with them…constantly. Apparently, 23% of an American’s time spent on the internet is spent on social media. That’s almost a quarter of the time – more than double the next category of time-occupiers, which is online gaming (9.8%).

The social media study also looked at the most active social networker and found that to be a woman. This average social media user is between the ages of 18 and 34. She lives in New England, and is likely of Asian or Pacific Island descent. She has most likely obtained a bachelor’s degree and probably makes under $50,000 a year.

The most mind-blowing stat from the study concerns the amount of time people actually spend on these social sites.  Nielsen looked at minutes spent, collectively, by Americans in one month.  According to the statistics, we spend 53,457,258 minutes, as a population, on Facebook.    That’s almost 102 years.  We don’t even spend a fraction of the amount of time on other sites like Twitter and LinkedIn.

Here are some other finds from the study -

• 37% of social media users access the platforms via mobile device
• As far the most valued services on their mobile devices, people picked social media access as number two, behind GPS
• Social networking apps are the third most popular apps, behind games and weather
• Over twice as many people 55 and older used the mobile device to access social media as did last year
• When you post a video to Facebook, women are more likely to watch but men are more likely to watch longer
• Social networkers are 47% more likely than other internet users to spend a lot of money on online shopping
• Australians spend the most time on social networks and blogs

The report is based on a survey of digital media that showed increases in year-over-year spend across paid search, display advertising, and Facebook. Facebook advertising, the firm says, was particularly strong.

This would somewhat reflect another recent report from MerchantCircle, which found that Facebook ads are gaining popularity among small businesses.

According to the IgnitionOne survey, Facebook advertising spend is up 22% year-over-year on a same-client-basis, with impressions up 11%.

“However, Facebook advertising has experienced high rates of growth from new marketer adoption in the past year, contributing a 280% increase in spend across all clients, and 200% increase in impressions YOY,” IgnitionOne tells WebProNews. “Spending patterns within an advertiser’s campaign lifecycle show marked growth declines after the first few months, suggesting advertisers are still in a ‘test and learn’ phase with the new and immature ad platform.”

Despite the increasing success of Facebook ads, Google was still the “standout performer,” according to the firm. Google showed grew to 80% share of all U.S. search advertising spend in Q2, compared with Yahoo/Bing at 19% share. “Google also saw dominating growth in other key search metrics, including impressions, clicks, CTR and eCPM,” the firm tells us. “Google’s AdEx commands 51% share of U.S. RTB display spend, compared to Yahoo!’s Right Media at 49% share. This marks a significant jump in Google’s market share in display YOY.”

It will be interesting to see how a jump in market share might impact a pending Department of Justice probe of Google’s pending acquisition of ad-optimization platform AdMeld. The investigation is aimed at determining if Google’s dominance in search advertising could make this an anticompetitive buy, and will examine Google’s plans for expansion strategies related to the acquisition. Google, of course, says that this is not an anti-competitive acquisition.

“The acquisition is designed to help publishers get the most from the rapidly growing display advertising industry, which is both complicated and incredibly competitive — the emergence in recent years of a huge variety of technologies for publishers, like Admeld’s, is great evidence of that,” a Google spokesperson is quoted as saying. The Federal Trade Commission has since launched its own antitrust investigation into Google’s broader business practices.

U.S. paid search spend grew a steady 12% year-over-year in Q2, and was flat compared with Q1 growth, according to IgnitionOne. “The quarter began strong, but dipped sharply in June to nearly flat growth on a YOY basis,” the firm says. “While this decline did not have a significant impact on the quarter overall, it could be an indicator of future months’ performance, and expectations for Q3 are cautiously optimistic.”

Google launched its latest attempt at a social network today. While it is being released under the veil of an early-stages project, it will be interesting to see what impact it might have on Google’s advertising offerings in the months and years ahead.

The report also looks at actions marketers are trying to get consumer to take when they see the ads. "Social media actions in particular had significant growth quarter-over-quarter, as  marketers are trying to use advertising to drive actions such as ‘liking’ a FB page," a spokesperson for Millennial Media tells WebProNews.

Some takeaways from the report include:

- Telecommunications was the top vertical for mobile advertising. This was primarily driven by carriers and device manufacturers that doubled down their mobile buys doing the holiday season. Windows Phone 7 devices in particular relied heavily on mobile advertising.

- Six verticals had triple digit growth year-over-year. Automotive grew 623% and Retail & Restaurants grew 572%

- 49% of mobile campaigns were designed to drive consumers to a website. 16% of campaigns were designed to drive app downloads

- Leveraging the increasing consumer desire to use LBS as part of the mobile experience, 22% of campaigns used a "store locator" as the desired campaign action.

- 14% of campaigns had a "social media" post-click campaign action-where consumers can interact with FB or Twitter, or perhaps post pictures to a custom site

- 57% of campaigns used a general broad reach, while 43% targeted a specific audience. Of the targeted campaigns, targeting by demographic was the most popular method.

Millennial Media recently reported that Android surpassed iOS as the largest smartphone OS on its network in December. Find the new SMART report here.

For context, Millennial’s network is the largest mobile ad network in the U.S. 

According to the firm, Android ad requests grew 141% from Q3 to Q4 and since January 2010, Android has grown 3130%. When breaking down the revenue generated by apps in Q4, Android had a 55% share as opposed to 39% for Apple. Android also had a 13% increase quarter-over-quarter.

Apple remained the top manufacturer on the Millennial network (as it has been for the last 15 months), and the iPhone and iPod touch made up two out of the top three of individual mobile devices.

Apple ad requests grew 12% from Q3 to Q4 and since January, Apple has increased 14%. iPad requests increased 280% from Q3 to Q4.

HTC came in at number 3 in the Top 15 Manufacturers with a 9% month-over-month increase. "There is a direct correlation with this increase and HTC having the highest number of devices (nine) in the Top 30 Mobile Device-Ranking including the debut of four new devices on the Millennial network: HTC Nexus One (Passion), HTC Evo, HTC Droid Incredible, and the HTC Desire," a spokesperson for Millennial Media points out. 

As far as carriers, Verizon experienced a 2% increase month-over-month in December. "Verizon’s impression share is likely a result of the popularity of Droid devices and the carrier’s ability to offer 13 of the Top 30 Mobile Devices," the spokesperson said. 

It will be interesting to see how much Verizon jumps for the February report, with the release of the iPhone for Verizon. 

Samsung maintained the number two position in the Top 15 Manufacturers for the third consecutive month.

Apple, which has been the leading device manufacturer on the firm’s network for the last year, accounted for 0% of impressions in September. iPad revenue growth increased 316% in Q3, with impression growth increasing by 156% in the same period. This comes as Apple just posted its own highest revenue of all time, and record iPhone and iPad sales. 

Smartphone impression share grew 7% month-over-month and accounted for 58% of the Smartphone, Feature Phone and Connected Device Impression share for Millennial Media. 

Here are the top manufacturers and devices for the month, according to the firm:

As you can see, RIM devices represented 5 of the Top 20 Mobile Phones. The BlackBerry Curve has been number 3 for two months in a row now. Meanwhile, Motorola moved up over Samsung to the number 2 spot on the manufacturer list. 

The top 4 connected devices were the iPod Touch, iPad, Sony PSP, and the Sony PS3.

Blogs: Are they more or less important in the age of social networks? Share your thoughts.

For one, AOL bought the technology blog TechCrunch for an undisclosed sum (which has been estimated to be at least $25 million) – a blog. Now, AOL doesn’t exactly have the reputation it once had as an ISP, but the company is doing all it can to revitalize itself and rebrand itself as a content-driven media company. The TechCrunch acquisition is a clear example. A Bloomberg article says the move is a possible way to "restore lost relevance". You may recall that AOL got rid of its social network, Bebo. 

Is social media dead? Just kidding. 

Forrester Research released a report indicating that content creation on social networks has slowed, despite global social network usage increasing. "A lack of growth in social creation translates into a lack of fresh ideas, content, and perspectives," said Forrester Research Consumer Insights Analyst Jacqueline Anderson. "For example, one-third of online consumers in the US regularly watch user-generated videos on sites like YouTube. But, only 10 percent of US online consumers upload videos they’ve created to public sites. The traits required to create social content are unique, and at this moment, the consumer market interested in these behaviors has plateaued." (emphasis added)

Still, I have seen no shortage of people sharing content on Facebook or Twitter – content that more often than not comes from blogs. And I’m not just friends with a bunch of bloggers. 

According to new research from Sysomos, about seven out of every ten tweets fail to earn replies or retweets. Covering the research, our own Doug Caverly writes, "Surprised?  So were we. Twitter’s gained a reputation for being a place to hold conversations, not give speeches. Still, Sysomos examined 1.2 billion tweets that were posted in the last two months before reaching its conclusions, so it’s pretty much a fact that just 29 percent of tweets produce reactions."

"Otherwise, Sysomos determined that the majority (79 percent) of those reactions are replies," adds Caverly. " Only 21 percent of reactions come in the form of retweets."

That may say something about Twitter as a means of producing content, but I still believe that Twitter can be a very powerful tool to create content and news. That has been proven time and time again (the Hudson River plane crash comes to mind). However, there is still plenty of "noise" and just like in real life, most of what people say isn’t worth repeating. I will say, however, that most of the retweets I see contain links, and those links very often point to content from blogs. 

I think I would go so far as to say that from a business perspective, blogging is probably more critical than it has ever been, and social media is largely responsible. This is not because people are engaging less with social networks. It’s because they’re engaging more, and social networks open the doors for blog content to find its way to relevant audiences like never before. 

Look at Facebook’s social plugins (including the "like" button). 2 million sites have added Facebook’s social plugins since they launched five months ago. "Likes" are now more important to search, as Facebook has made updates so that "liked" news stories appear when people do searches within Facebook. Google is champing at the bit to get this information (and CEO Eric Schmidt thinks they will one way or another). 

Whether or not Google ever does get access to Facebook’s data, it’s in there to be searched, and much of that comes directly from blogs. Of course Google has no trouble indexing the blog content on its own, it’s more about the popularity and relevance of the content at the personal level. Facebook’s methods for this are simply another reason to create good content, and there’s probably no better or easier means to do so than with a blog. 

I mentioned business. One more nugget of research released this week comes from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which found that more than half of Americans do online research before making a purchase. How much of that research do you think comes from blogs – whether they find it through search or through social? 

Do you think blogs are critical for business? Tell us what you think.

"Mobile operators around the world will invest billions in the spectrum and network infrastructure to deploy 4G networks, but are struggling to keep pace with 3G data traffic growth driven by the use of smartphones and USB dongles, as well as bandwidth-intensive video content and applications," says a report from Pyramid and Heavy Reading. "These challenges require a transaction-based business case that allows them to more fully monetize the broadband traffic generated by mobile Internet services, content, and applications."

"Operators planning to deploy 4G networks face many technical, strategic, and business complexities in how to manage their network evolution and critical questions on how to get a return on their investments," says Berge Ayvazian, Senior Consultant, Heavy Reading, and Director, 4G Consulting Practice.

A separate study from ABI Research finds that mobile data usage continues to grow exponentially as 3G technology spreads globally. The firm says that from 2009 to 2015 data usage in Western Europe and North America is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42% and 55% respectively. In 2010, the average North American user is expected to consume 159 megabytes of data – up from 100 megabytes in 2009.

"Mobile voice has already been surpassed by mobile data traffic on some networks, and this trend will only accelerate," says ABI Research wireless analyst Bhavya Khanna. "This boom in usage is driven by the rapid adoption of smartphones in these markets."

ABI notes that the explosion in data traffic doesn’t mean a corresponding rise in data revenues for operators, as the popularity of unlimited or fixed price plans caps revenue even as usage grows. However, AT&T may have set a precedent with its new rates that find those fixed price plans harder to come by in the future.

Is email marketing more effective than social media for you? Let us know.

The report is based on a survey of over 1,400 U.S. consumers, which the firm calls "nationally representative."

While Facebook may think email is "probably going away," marketers are still having a great deal of success with it. And just as increased mobile adoption continues to fuel social media use, it’s not exactly hurting email.

The report suggests that the rise of mobile will continue fuel email’s success. It notes that each generation of chipsets moves mobile devices closer to the personal computer. "Advanced behaviors today (accessing the Internet or checking email from a mobile device) will clearly soon be commonplace, at least for people in their working years. Nearly two-thirds of people under 24 have checked email on a mobile device," Econsultancy says.

"Online product research contributes a far larger percentage of total retail than the 8% directly attributed to e-commerce, while the evolving nature of digital interaction and customer service is changing the fundamental relationship between companies and consumers," says Econsultancy’s US Research Director, Stefan Tornquist. "The winners will be those who use digital communications most effectively, to influence and enable both online and offline purchases."

"Although a variety of media are competing for consumer attention, email continues to be the desired channel for many types of commercial communication," adds Tornquist. "Social networking and its effect on the nature of brand is the hottest topic in digital marketing, and deservedly so. It’s still worthwhile for marketers to remember that social network adoption is far from maturity."

The entire report can be found here.

Of couse, it’s not really a competition between social media and email. Both should be part of your marketing arsenal, and are effectively used together all the time. For example, another recent study from ExactTarget found that nearly 40% of consumers visit Facebook and Twitter to supplement the news, information or deals they receive via email marketing.

In what ways do you incorporate social media into your email strategy? Share with other WebProNews readers.