The digital media trackers at the Pew Internet & American Life Project have determined that 8% of Americans now use Twitter. Pew did not say how many of the are based in digerati sectors such as New York, San Francisco, and L.A., but they did say it tends to be more popular with "young adults, minorities, and those who live in cities." Details from the study, which is the Pew's first on Twitter usage, can be found here: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Twitter-Update-2010/Findings/Overview.aspx. Okay, so that was considerably more than 140 characters, but you're still reading, aren't you?

our conference MC has some real lyrical skillz: it is hard to find convincing rhymes for "spreadsheets"

After introductions from MediaPost supremo Ken Fadner and conference MC Aaron Goldman in which they questioned each other's sartorial choices, the MediaPost Search Insider Summit kicked off with Goldman noting search's dominant position, as reflected in the fact that "search controls the majority of online ad budgets." But with Facebook in the ascendant, and continuing proliferation and fragmentation of digital media, it's time to ask where the future of search lies. Previously, Goldman noted, most marketers embraced "the idea that search is a magnet for demand initiated by other channels," but "search has now become a two-way mechanism." At the …

Quick-serve restaurant Tim Hortons has signed on as the title sponsor of the highly anticipated 2011 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic,  part of a new multi-year partnership with the National Hockey League (NHL).  Also as part of the agreement, Tim Hortons has become the Official Quick Serve Restaurant Coffee, Donut and Breakfast of the NHL in Canada. The 2011 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic features the Montreal Canadiens against the Calgary Flames in McMahon Stadium on Feb. 20. Tim Hortons' title sponsorship includes on-ice brand position, on-air title broadcast rights with the CBC including branded pre-promotion; and integration of …

Chevrolet will be official vehicle of the Army-Navy football game. The deal is a three-year partnership, per Chevrolet, which says it will present a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado to the Freedom Team of Wounded Veterans, part of Achilles International, which provides support to athletes and veterans with disabilities. Other Chevrolet efforts include a recent donation of 11,000 hours of prepaid calling cards to troops serving in Afghanistan, funded by Chevrolet and the GM Military Discount program, which collected more than 20,000 cell phones at Chevrolet locations and events. The phones were donated to Cell Phones for Soldiers, a non-profit organization that …

Yahoo has launched an updated version of Yahoo local that includes news and information, events and deals down to the level of city neighborhoods. The hyper-local push now in beta testing spans more than 30 neighborhoods and cities in the U.S., including San Francisco, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale in California; Brooklyn, NY; and Birmingham, Ferndale and Royal Oak in Michigan. Yahoo says the effort includes content drawn from "the best local blogs and newspapers" as well as its own editors and the Yahoo Contributor Network, built on its acquisition of Associated Content earlier this year. Yahoo will also …

Cars.com an online buying and selling platform has signed Joey Lawrence, star of ABC Family's "Melissa and Joey," and his family to help determine the best overall "Crossover" vehicle under $30,000.  In conjunction with USA Today and "Motorweek," the "Family Crossover Shootout" will pit nine family crossovers in a head-to-head competition to determine which is best.  Lawrence will participate at the Cars.com Family Crossover Shootout this Saturday.   The Lawrences, in conjunction with the Cars.com editors, will rate the family-friendly features of each car. After the day of testing, the Cars.com editors will tally up the results and announce …

With chains like Walmart, Target and Toys R Us continually slashing toy prices, shoppers are heading to the malls fully focused on the mission: The right toy at the right price, or they walk. A new study from the NPD Group says that this year, 62% of buyers leave home knowing precisely what toy they want to buy for their kids, and 77% of those know exactly where they intend to purchase it. And if the toy they want isn't in stock, 42% say they'd head to another store and 9% would look online. Just 22% say they would …

Online research firm Dynamic Logic today offers a few tips for holiday advertising online: -Men are just as important as women when targeting holiday ads. (Half the population, after all.) Women have higher baseline awareness of retailers and  likelihood to visit, but men's ability to associate a brand's message with its advertising after exposure increases more than women's. -While rich media helps achieve ad awareness, its ability to persuade retail store or site visitation isn'tt significantly different from static ads. -Retail "intent to visit" does not vary much as frequency increases. The benefit of a high …

Video ad network YuMe has unveiled three new pre-roll ad units dubbed Lights Out, SideKick and Expanded View. Lights Out is meant to simulate a page takeover by dimming the background of a pre-roll; SideKick synchronizes design elements such as audio cues and animation in a companion banner; and Expanded View allows ads to be framed with a border image to expand branding beyond the video player. The frame disappears when the ad stops playing. Read more and see demos here.