Interactive

Technology history was made at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and Keynote played a role in making it happen. With the unprecedented use of streaming video to inform the US and the world in real time, this year’s games received coverage like never before, and those Web sites that invested upfront in load testing and monitoring performed extraordinarily well given their aggressive complexity, and the extreme popularity of the Web 2.0 enabled sites.

The automotive industry is having a rough year, and the effects are spilling over into its advertising. In Q1 2008, online was the only medium for which automotive ad spending did not fall, according to Bernstein Research. The research firm said that even Internet ad spending by automakers rose only 3.8% over Q4 2007, accounting for 8.6% of total online advertising.

eMarketer predicts that advertisers in the US will spend $24.9 billion online this year. That estimate is slightly lower than the one eMarketer released in March 2008, which said that US online advertising spending would reach $25.9 billion in 2008.

Across a wide range of advertising metrics, branded content sites outscored Internet industry norms for the Internet 41 out of 43 times according to a new research report released by the Online Publishers Association (OPA). Additionally, “beyond-the-banner” forms of online advertising such as video, sponsorships and rich media also outpaced industry norms when placed on branded content sites.

A Deloitte survey of companies sponsoring online communities indicates that enterprises have begun to effectively use social media tools and online communities to engage with customers and employees for brand discussions, idea generation and product discovery. However, the survey also indicates that while these online initiatives are having a positive impact, enterprises have not yet harnessed the true potential of these communities.

Some 55% of all adult Americans now have a high-speed internet connection at home. The percentage of Americans with broadband at home has grown from 47% in early 2007. Poorer Americans saw no growth in broadband adoption in the past year while at the same time nearly one-third of broadband users pay more to get faster connections.

They still prefer shopping offline

Nearly six out of 10 US teens surveyed have made a purchase online, according to a June 2008 study conducted by OTX and The Intelligence Group. Responding online buying teens said they spent an average of $46 every month, and more than one-quarter spent $50 or more.