A survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project (as reported by Mediaweek) shows that search ranks #2 in the daily online activities of American adults.  Over 2200 individuals were polled this past April and May.  Here’s the breakdown of the group’s Web habits.

Coming in at #1 — no big surprise here, is email.  60% of users access email on a daily basis.

#2 — belongs to search at 49%.  Yes, that’s 49% utilizing search on a daily basis.

#3 — News sites are visited by 39% of users every day

#4 — Weather sites at 30%

And rounding out the top 5 — Social Networking.  Surprisingly, despite the enormous amount of people jumping on the social networking bandwagon, only 13% of users log in to the social networking sites on a daily basis.

Do these numbers surprise you?  I guess I’m your typical Web user because these stats seem to fall right in line with my own personal activities.  First thing in the morning, I grab that cup of coffee and check my email.  But I’m online all day (and some of it is even business related.  Said with a wink, of course!!). 

The percentages for search are sure to increase as it becomes more accessible and faster thanks to the estimated 55% of Americans using broadband connections these days.  And let’s give credit to the search engine sites for diligently working to improve the user experience by making the information easier to find and, thank goodness, relevant. 

So, now that you know how popular search is among the general population…anyone wanna talk SEO? 

Some interesting statistics were recently put out by The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the Neilson Monitor-Plus’ report and the National Newspaper Association. How you interpret these results depends on whether you’re of the glass is half empty or the glass is half full mindset.

It’s being reported by the IAB that although online ad revenues continue to grow, the quarterly gains are slowing down. 2008 Q1 experienced an 18.2% increase over 2007 Q4, however, it’s a substantial decline from the 26% year-over-year growth reported by the IAB.

Additionally, the Neilsen Monitor-Plus’ report states that Internet ad impressions grew only by 14.7% in Q1 of ‘08, compared to 31.9% last year.

Newspaper’s websites ad revenues grew only by 7.2%, versus 22% reported the year before.

In a separate article I ran across in Advertising Age, Robert Coen, senior VP-director of forecasting at Magna Global predicts total US ad spending will rise in ‘08 by 2% to $285 billion.

And finally, according to a recent MediaWeek article , interactive media budgets grew from 8% in ‘05 to 14% this year.

The bottom line is this…advertising revenue growth rates may have declined but there is still growth.  It’s all in how you look at it.  So again, I ask you, do you look at that glass as half empty or half full?

Despite today’s troubling economy, eMarketer is predicting U.S. online spending will increase by 23% in 2008.  Although that’s slower growth than in recent years, it seems to be indicative of the ongoing shift of media dollars to the Internet. The greater ability to measure online ads is an attractive option for marketers forced to deal with reduced budgets. 

The Web researcher does forecast some slippage in search advertising down the road.