A new study from Ipsos Mendelsohn finds that as the rich get richer, they surf the Web more. Affluents, defined as those who earn more than $100,000 per year, are "highly wired" Mediaweek says, with almost all owning and using a desktop, laptop and cell phone, according to the survey. The group represents about 20% of U.S. households and goes online an average of 26 times per week using a computer, and 17.6 times via mobile devices. In all, affluents spend 23.4 hours per week online, but that figure rises to 27.4 hours among those who earn more than $250,000 …

As The Wall Street Journal's Martin Peers says: "It's early days, but so far the (IAC/InterActiveCorp) split-up hasn't exactly set the world on fire." To be fair, it's still very early days. IAC broke apart on Aug. 20, splitting into five units: Ticketmaster, Tree.com, HSN, Interval Leisure, and IAC. Before the split, IAC shares were trading at $17.60; yesterday, the combined value-per-share of the five new entities was only slightly higher, at $18.53. This is disappointing, particularly for IAC, which was supposed to receive the biggest bounce after shedding what many felt was dead weight, particularly in the form …

Just in case it wasn't abundantly clear before, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, in an interview with reporters, flatly stated that the idea behind Chrome is to displace operating systems like Microsoft's Windows. "I think operating systems are kind of an old way to think of the world," he said. "They have become kind of bulky, they have to do lots and lots of different (legacy) things." Instead, Google thinks that any task done in a standalone desktop computer app can be delivered via the Web through a browser like Google's new Chrome. "We (Web users) want a very lightweight, fast …

Faced with stiffer competition for broadband subscribers, the likes of Verizon and AT&T are forced to pursue new deals to expand their customer base. Verizon, for example, is now offering customers six months of free DSL service for those who sign up for the company's phone and Internet package -- a savings of $20 per month. AT&T, meanwhile, has taken a different route, guaranteeing current prices, which range from $20 to $55 per month, for two years. For now, the most generous offers are coming from DSL providers, but The Wall Street Journal thinks the cable companies will soon become …

Google, desperate to make money from YouTube, is now trying to pitch the video sharing site as a useful tool for business customers. The search giant is including YouTube as part of its Google Apps package deal for businesses that also includes email, instant messaging, calendars, word processing and spreadsheets. The free YouTube add-on allows employees to upload and share videos with colleagues securely. What kind of videos would employees share? Training videos, conference highlights, internal announcements, etc. Users can search for videos, comment on them, add descriptions and tags, embed them in Web pages or download them to …

It's no secret that Google's YouTube is under-performing in the advertising department. Forbes estimates that YouTube's ad revenues will reach $200 million this year and $350 million in 2009, while Citi analyst Mark Mahaney thinks the video giant can make $500 million next year if it does a better job selling display ads Even so, TechCrunch contributor Don Reisinger says the question marks continue to hang over YouTube, especially compared to Fox and NBC's joint venture, Hulu. Hulu served about 88 million videos in May, compared to 4.2 billion for YouTube, but the old media startup has the advantage …

Google on Tuesday unveiled what it calls "a fresh take on the browser," introducing a public trial for the new software for Windows users. Versions for Apple and Linux devices are also in the works. The announcement comes days after Microsoft launched Internet Explorer 8 and Mozilla introduced the latest iteration of its Firefox Web browser. In true Google style, the company plans to make the software code for "Chrome," as the browser is called, open to other developers to enhance and expand. "We realized that the Web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and …