December 2005 saw about 1.2 million newspaper blog readers, while 2006 of that same month saw about 3.8 million. Newspapers are also increasingly calling on their staff to do more blogging, says the Reuters news agency.

“As Web 2.0 becomes a predominant online consumer model, traditional publishers are adopting interactive forums like blogs,” said Carolyn Creekmore, Nielsen’s senior media analytics director in a statement. “It makes perfect sense for online newspapers, where responding to a blog posting is like writing an instant letter to the editor.”

Nielsen also reported that the newspaper blog audience increasingly skews male, with a 66 — 34% male-to-female ratio as of December 2006.

“Men tend to be both early adopters of new technologies and avid consumers of news,” added Creekmore. However, she expects to see women begin to make up a larger part of newspaper blog readership as they take a more active role on the Internet.

Nielsen hopes GamePlay will help the gaming industry develop an effective and standardized advertising-based business model to help cover skyrocketing development costs, especially those for next-generation titles. Nielsen also hopes the new service will provide advertisers, game manufacturers and developers with a more comprehensive view of the gaming audience, allowing them to target ads more efficiently and know exactly who’s consuming their games.

“The value of an entertainment medium is directly proportional to how well it is measured,” said Jeff Herrmann, Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services’ VP in a statement. “A reliable and accurate standard of measurement for video gaming will drive advertising investment in this medium and help convert video game advertising from a discretionary advertising experiment to a must-have option.”

GamePlay uses Nielsen’s Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement system, which determines ratings for video content through statistical analysis of the more than 10,000 People Meter devices currently in the field. Because GamePlay uses the same system, Nielsen will also be able to determine what TV programs gamers like to watch. Results will start becoming available in mid-2007.

The Podbridge system offers audience metrics like the number of actual “plays” and user opt-in demographics. Advertisers can control the insertion of ads within specific content and achieve precise targeting.

“Popular Forbes.com shows such as StreetTalk and SportsMoney will now meet the increasing consumer demand for convenience, while advertisers will be able to effectively reach and engage with a tremendously valuable audience,” said Podbridge CEO and Founder Murgesh Navar in a statement.

“Up until now, the big hurdle for advertisers has been the inability to gauge if someone had viewed any or all of the video content that they have downloaded,” added Mike Smith, VP and General Manager of Forbes.com. “With Podbridge, not only can we measure actual viewing, but we also get a detailed breakdown by audience demographics and are able to precisely target advertisements.”

According to a Nielsen/NetRatings study, over 5.5 million Web users downloaded a video podcast during a thirty day period within June and July 2006. Podbridge-supported podcasts on Forbes.com will be launched over the next few months.

“Not only were our combined sites the top ranker in Home and Fashion for March, HGTV.com and DIYnetwork.com ranked as the No. 1 and No. 2 online content destinations respectively in Nielsen//NetRatings’ Home and Garden sub-category and FoodNetwork.com was the No. 1 site in the Food and Cooking sub-category,” said Ron Feinbaum, senior VP and GM for Scripps Networks Interactive.

Additionally, Scripps will be launching a new broadband channel, HGTV BathDesign, on May 1st, which Feinbaum hopes will help create “…the deepest, richest resource of kitchen and bath design on the Web with more than 500 broadband videos and tools which allow our users to interact with our brands in new and meaningful ways.”

This data comes on the heels of Nielsen’s previous data, which showed that nearly 10 million people went online during the first day of the NCAA Final Four tournament. Nielsen reported that daily traffic to sports-related websites grew 21% to 9.7 million unique visitors from Wednesday, March 15th to Thursday, March 16th. CBS’s decision to broadcast the NCAA games live via the web led to many sports fans visiting the online registration prior to the start of the games, which began Thursday the 16th.

According to Nielsen//NetRatings, two-thirds of all Americans use their mobile phones while in the bathroom. Sun Microsystems has come up with a way to detect when a cell phone is in use in the bathroom in order to provide bathroom-specific mobile advertising.

“When you’re in the bathroom, you notice the slight echo. Sound echoes of the tile… that’s also what makes the bathroom a great place for singing. We’ve put together a piece of software that will detect the echo-frequency range present in most bathrooms through a mobile phone’s microphone,” says Sun researcher Torri Niemczyck. “That way advertisers can detect when mobile users are in the bathroom, and serve them ads for things like hand soap, dental care, and even beauty products.”

The Sun software works on any java-enabled mobile phone with an internet connection. Sun Microsystems says they are already talking to Opera about inserting the bathroom-targeting technology into the upcoming version of Opera’s mobile web browser. Opera is currently offering their Opera Mini mobile browser as a free download. Sun’s technology could open up a new source of revenue for them, alongside of Google search referrals.

NCAASport.com was the fastest growing site for users at home and at work for the week ending March 19. Traffic increased 201 percent a home from 535,000 to 1.6 million unique visitors, and 261 percent at work from 643,000 to 2.3 million unique visitors. Furthermore, 48 percent of home visitors and 59 percent of work visitors logged onto the NCAA March Madness on Demand page to stream live video of the championship tournament. CBSSportsline.com also had weekly traffic growth where users at work increased 219 percent from a unique audience of 1.0 million to 3.2 million. Traffic at home increased from 1.6 million to 3.1 million unique visitors.

Nielsen also announced that greeting card sites benefited from the exchange of St. Patrick’s Day e-cards with the AmercianGreetings.com Network, which includes AmericanGreetings.com and Bluemountain.com, growing 148 percent from 1.4 to 3.4 million unique visitors. 123Greetings.com also grew 111 percent, from a unique audience of 565,000 to 1.2 million, while AOL Greetings increased 79 percent, growing from 638,000 to 1.1 million unique visitors.

Email sites continued to be a quickly growing target for marketers, taking 38 percent of all online impression dollars, up from last month’s 35 percent and last year’s 20 percent. Retail goods and services garnered 17 percent of impressions, compared to 14 percent last year. Portals and search engines actually dropped to 10 percent from last year’s share of 17 percent.

Telecom ads, at 15 percent, were way up from last year’s 9 percent, but slightly lower than last month’s 16 percent share. Vonage Holdings Corp. accounted for 45 percent of these ads, Verizon Communications was responsible for 15 percent, and Bell South Corporation held a steady share at 11 percent.

With its new Marketplace section HGTVPro.com will enable small advertisers, who may not have large budgets, to receive exposure on the site. A daily pricing index of building supplies and a best product feature has been added and HGTVPro.com’s Best Practices section was revised to include more categories and more streaming video and a news section.

Plans are also underway to develop an HGTVPro.com show for one of the Scripps’ linear networks.

HGTVPro.com’s recent activities are attracting advertisers like Centerpoint Translucent Systems a maker of translucent roofing materials. Teri Lux, director of customer relations for Centerpoint, said her company chose to advertise on the website in order to “get the most visibility quickly for a very innovative new product.”

In January, HGTVPro.com had more than 820,000 unique visitors, up 118 percent from January 2005, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. January page views were more than 4.6 million, an increase of 200 percent over January 2005.

In reaction, Jim Sexton, senior vice president, Scripps Interactive, says, “More people are becoming aware of HGTVPro.com and what we offer, and we’re confident that will lead to a continued increase in site traffic.”

In a press release from Nielsen//NetRatings, Ken Cassar, chief analyst for the research group said, “Despite the overwhelming market share that Google and Yahoo! search enjoy, they continue to see strong growth in the volume of sponsored links. While Google, in particular, seeks to diversify its revenue, it is a positive sign that its core search advertising business remains robust.”

Although Google had more sponsored link impressions than Yahoo! in January, Yahoo! is catching up to its competitor. During the past six months, Yahoo’s sponsored links have grown 21 percent to 23.2 billion, while Google’s sponsored links have grown 14 percent to 41.1 billion. eBay’s Shopping.com , the primary sponsored link advertiser for both Google and Yahoo!, contributed to the growth in sponsored links for both sites. Cassar agreed, “E-commerce advertisers, eBay chief among them, represent the top advertisers on both Yahoo! and Google. It is becoming increasingly clear that sponsored link advertising is a necessary cost of doing business for e-commerce companies.”