Yahoo! Photos was the second largest photography site in April 2006, attracting 7.8 million unique visitors, up 21 percent from April 2005. Flickr ranked fifth, but was the fastest growing among the top five photography sites, skyrocketing 346 percent year over year.

Online Sales to Surpass $200 Billion This Year, According to Shop.org/Forrester Study (-Retailers Integrate Websites, Stores to Maximize Sales- According to The 2006 State of Retailing Online from Shop.org, conducted by Forrester Research, online sales will top $200 billion this year, after reaching $100-billion only three years ago. 2006 online sales (including travel) are expected to rise 20 percent to $211.4 billion.

According to preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America, advertising expenditures for newspaper Web sites increased by 34.9 percent to $613 million in the first quarter versus the same period a year ago. Print and online expenditures together totaled $11.1 billion for the first quarter of 2006, a 1.8 percent year-over-year increase.

comScore Networks, in an analysis of consumer video consumption of both content and ads across the Web along with the demographic characteristics of video viewers, finds that the number of consumers viewing video online grew 18 percent from October 2005 to March 2006. In total, consumers viewed 3.7 billion video streams in March and slightly less than 100 minutes of video content per viewer per month, compared to an average of 85 minutes in October.

The recent Internet Retailer survey, reported in a lead article by Mark Brohan, shows that 40% of the retailers taking part in the survey anticipate growth of 30% over 2005, but 39.5% of chain retailers, catalogers, virtual merchants and consumer brand manufacturers are ready to reduce expenses, including their marketing, fulfillment and general overhead, to sustain profitability.

Top Online financial sites, visitor demographics, advertisers, ad sizes, types and delivery technology.

A new report from 360i and SearchIgnite, describes the value of the entire path a searcher takes from the first click through purchase. Data from more than 3.9 million users and 5.1 million clicks during the first quarter of 2006 confirms the fact that the more times a consumer clicks on a marketer's ad, the more likely that consumer is to convert. In addition, the highest conversion rate (9.30%) resulted when the user's first click and last click on a marketer's paid search ad were both brand terms.

According to The Media Audit, the percentage of adults reading the front section of a daily newspaper from 2000 to 2005 increased from 51.4 to 53.0 percent in the 87 metropolitan markets surveyed regularly. Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics, producer of The Media Audit, said "The same research shows the percentage of adults reading the other 11 sections of a daily newspaper declined."

According to the NRF 2006 Father's Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, spending on Father's Day this year is anticipated to reach $9.0 billion, up from last year's $8.2 billion. When it comes to spending on gifts for Dad, the average person is expected to spend $88.80, compared to the $122.16 spent this year on Mom.

For those marketers dealing with quick service and sit-down restaurant patronage, some markets are better (or, at least different) than others. According to Scarborough Research, the average adult visits a quick service restaurant 5.2 times in a given month, but in Raleigh, NC, it's 6.2 times.