Symantec Corp., in a new study, announced that more than 80 percent of children surveyed who use email receive inappropriate spam on a daily basis. In addition, half of the kids surveyed reported feeling uncomfortable and offended when seeing improper email content. The survey interviewed 1,000 youths between the ages of seven and 18.

The recent site audience releases from Nielsen//NetRatings for the week of May 25th show several entertainment sites reaching 4 to 5% of the Internet viewers, while family and lifestyle were getting less than 3%. And, for the last week in the month, investment out reaches government.

The findings of a new study, by Horowitz Associates and Livingston and Company, show that two-fifths (40%) of current dial-up subscribers are currently considering switching to High Speed Data service, either through a cable modem or a DSL line. Potential penetration of High Speed Data could soon reach 54% of all Internet homes.

The market leader for House & Garden is Home Depot which accounted for 9% share of visits made to US House and Garden sites in the week ending May 3rd, followed closely by Lowes Home Improvement Warehouse with 8%. However, people spent the longest time at the website of the much-maligned diva of home improvement, Martha Stewart. US Internet users spent an average time of close to ten minutes on the site-almost three minutes more than the average for sites in this category.

Horowitz Associates has just released Transitioning to the Digital Home, a study of the cable industry that reports that we are clearly on the verge of critical mass in the penetration of all things digital. Two out of three consumers (64%) say their home is now (38%), or about to become (26%), "digital."

Karissa Price, Director of Marketing/Corporate Development for Lexicon Marketing USA, Inc, in their monthly Hispanic Markets Newsletter, writes "at a time when the nation's economy is stagnating, the U.S. Hispanic market is emerging as one of the most promising areas for growth. While the economy has lost nearly 1.5 million jobs since the end of 2000, employment among U.S. Hispanics has grown. This growth has been fueled by increases in the Hispanic population and the need for businesses to find cheaper labor."

Electronics sweeps education and career interest by orders of magnitude in mid-May, while IM's and emails captured more than 60% of the Internet audience.

According to preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America, newspaper advertising expenditures for the first quarter of 2003 totaled $9.9 billion, a 1.8 percent increase over the same period a year earlier. Retail advertising spending rose 2.5 percent to $4.7 billion, national ad spending increased 3.7 percent to $1.8 billion and classified was off 0.2 percent to $3.5 billion.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau released research results from a study entitled Marketing Evolution by Rex Briggs, to determine the impact of individual ad sizes, as well as the incremental effect of each format in conjunction with TV advertising. The research demonstrated that larger online ads perform better in communicating (certain) brand attributes.

According to a new study from consultancy BeringPoint Inc., only 6% of executives overseeing customer relationship management programs have set specific return on investment goals for the early stages of the projects. In contrast, more than 70% said they didn't have clear and specific goals for achieving returns on their CRM investments. Separately, 40% reported they received support and approval from only part of their company.