According to the latest BIGresearch Consumer Intentions and Action survey, the way people feel about spending their discretionary dollars may say a lot about how people plan on voting in the presidential election,. In October says BIGresearch, several of the influences on shopping behaviors are improving. It seems to be good for President Bush. For example, the percentage of consumers who said they've become "more practical" in their purchase behaviors (38.6%) reached its lowest level since September of 2002 (37.1%). Fewer also said they are focusing on Needs over Wants than at any other time.

Total magazine rate-card-reported advertising revenue for the month of September 2004 closed at $2,286,636,158, an increase of +17.1% compared to September 2003, according to Publishers Information Bureau (PIB). Ad pages totaled 25,165.36, up +8.5% from last year. Year-to-date, rate-card-reported revenue closed at $14,908,324,440, an increase of +9.7%, with ad pages totaling 164,277.46, registering a +2.2% gain.

A new report series from Knowledge Networks/SRI finds that households with higher incomes or children are much more likely to own a range of media technologies, from PCs to high-speed Internet access to DVD players. By comparison, the "digital divide" between different ethnic and age groups is less severe, though still substantial in some cases.

A new report from Global Advertising Strategies finds that VoIP marketing is shaped by agenda and audience, but is currently largely aimed at early adopters and should soon shift into more mass market-oriented messaging.

Hitwise reports that while eBay is the most visited online shopping and auction destination, it also is the most searched-for brand in the entire Shopping category. According to the four week Search Term Data study ending Sept. 25, 2004, the popularity of the term "ebay" dwarfs the level of search-engine queries for all other retailers fivefold or more.

Online product research by consumers this past year was responsible for driving $180.7 billion in offline spending, compared to $106.5 billion in direct online consumer spending according to The American Interactive Consumer Survey conducted by The Dieringer Research Group.

A deeper look at Online music destinations, user demographics, ad types, sizes and delivery mechanisms.

According to a new analysis from Mediamark Research Inc., 8.1% of U.S. households do not have landline telephones, up from 4.2% in the spring of 2000. Non-landline consumers are those who have chosen to rely solely on cell phones or no phone at all.

The study High Speed Internet: Challenges and Opportunities 2004, recently released by Horowitz Associates, shows that 28% of dial-up users in the survey are considering or have already decided to get broadband service of some kind.

In conjunction with very topical consumer implant technology, the new Consumer RFID Buzz survey conducted by BIGresearch and Artafact LLC explores consumer concern with privacy abuse. Joe Pilotta, PhD, VP Research BIGresearch. says "We were surprised at how many people are already aware of RFID given the minimal consumer press."