It's not an exaggeration. I'll start with sales figures, but they're not the only indicator: In the first five months of this year retail sales of videogame software alone (not consoles) "grew 45% over the same period last year to $3.42 billion." Overall videogame industry growth was 32%," the San Jose Mercury News reports. In the UK, sales were up 28% the first half of this year to 33 million+ … [Read more...] about ‘Soon we’ll all be gamers’
Research
Benefits of social networking: Study
In what Science Daily calls a "first-of-its-kind study" of teen social-networking practices, researchers at the University of Minnesota looked low-income, 16-to-18-year-olds in 13 urban schools in the Midwest. It found that - contrary to reports of a high-income/low-income digital divide - 94% use the Internet, 82% go online at home, and 77% had social-network profiles. "When asked what they learn … [Read more...] about Benefits of social networking: Study
Using the Net at home: International data
Internet use certainly isn't growing the way it used to! "The UK held steady in active home Internet users in the month of April," Clickz.com reports, citing research from Nielsen Online. But in many other countries active Internet use from home was down, including in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the US. By percent of population, Italy (7.29), France … [Read more...] about Using the Net at home: International data
Videogame sales growth
Sales of videogame software and hardware reached $1.12 billion last month, up 37% from a year earlier, Reuters reports. Grand Theft Auto 4 was the best-selling title for the month, according to market researcher NPD, and is the year's top-selling game so far. Meanwhile, an Australian research found that "playing videogames for hours on end may be bad for your health, but ... it doesn't mean you … [Read more...] about Videogame sales growth
Facebook, MySpace neck and neck globally
MySpace is still No. 1 in the US, but Facebook caught up to MySpace's monthly traffic worldwide in April with 115 million visitors, PCWorld reports, citing research by comScore (the International Herald Tribune reports that MySpace has reached 118 million registered users). "Myspace has maintained similar traffic numbers for the past year, but Facebook has grown from less than 40,000 unique … [Read more...] about Facebook, MySpace neck and neck globally