According to the latest McKinsey Global Survey of Business Executives, executive confidence in the global economy has risen for the first time in two years, propelled by a significant rebound in the confidence of US executives in their country's economy. In addition, although the economies of China and India are booming, executives in those countries display markedly different levels of confidence.

According to the results of a recent survey conducted by Roper Public Affairs and Media for the InFocus Corporation, traditional methods of advertising are lost on today's average 18-24 year old because of (DVRs) and the Internet. Candace Petersen, Vice President and General Manager, The University Network, said "(The) results confirm TUN's success in engaging campus viewers... who don't consume as much traditional media sources as previous generation."

A deep drill down to look at user demographics, top online financial destinations, advertisers, ad sizes and delivery.

A study by Sharpe Partners revealed that 89% of adult Internet users in America share content with others via email. The recently released study on viral marketing also found that 63% of the respondents share content at least once a week and as many as 75% of the respondents forward this content to up to six other recipients.

comScore Networks released year-to-date consumer spending figures, which showed that online non-travel spending is up 33 percent for the first three weeks in January 2006 versus corresponding days in 2005. Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore Networks, said "The 2006 year opened on a strong note, with solid growth... in online non-travel sales.... It's clear based on what we're seeing so far in 2006 that the strength in online sales will not wane anytime soon."

According to Hitwise, search term research reveals which movies are most popular with US Internet users. According to Hitwise research, searches for "Brokeback Mountain" were over 57 times more prevalent than the next most searched on nominated movie, "Crash," and over nine times more prevalent than all other nominated movie titles combined for the week ending January 21, 2006.

According to a recent national study conducted by Allurent, an overwhelming 82% of respondents said they would be less likely to return to a site where they had a frustrating shopping experience, and nearly a third said that a frustrating experience when shopping online would make them less likely to buy at that retailer's physical store. 55% of the consumers surveyed said that a frustrating shopping experience online negatively impacts their overall opinion of that retailer.

Nielsen//NetRatings recently announced that traffic to Apple's iTunes Web site and use of the iTunes application has skyrocketed 241 percent over the past year, from 6.1 million unique visitors in December 2004 to 20.7 million in December 2005, reaching nearly14 percent of the active Internet population.

As more and more advertising money enters the search arena, overall prices in the online keyword auction have stabilized, helped by increases in the inventory of keywords and phrases, tells the recently released Fathom Online Keyword Price Index" (KPI). The report found that in December 2005 KPI averages eased, dropping two percent to $1.43 from $1.46 in November.

According to new research from Points North Group and Horowitz Associates, consumers would prefer to get free on-demand TV programs and endure commercials rather than pay $1.99 for programs without commercials, by a greater than a three-to-one margin