Online Real Estate Technology

At Google one of our key philosophies is to take risks and to experiment. To that end, in July 2009 we announced the ability to find property for sale or rent directly on Google Maps. This is one of the “search options” next to the search box on Google Maps, and is currently available in the US, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Japan.

In part due to low usage, the proliferation of excellent property-search tools on real estate websites, and the infrastructure challenge posed by the impending retirement of the Google Base API (used by listing providers to submit listings), we’ve decided to discontinue the real estate feature within Google Maps on February 10, 2011.

We’ve learned a lot and been excited to see real estate companies use Google Maps in innovative ways to help people find places to live, such as Coldwell Banker’s use of Google Maps and YouTube, or Realtor.com’s Android app that lets you draw a shape on a map to find all properties you’re interested in.

Yet we recognize that there might be better, more effective ways to help people find local real estate information than the current feature makes possible. We’ll continue to explore this area, but in the meantime, Google offers other options to home-seekers: you can still access other information in Maps such as local businesses, directions and transit times, as well as aerial and Street View imagery to explore where you might want to move, and also use Google search results to find helpful real estate information and websites.

Real estate companies can also continue to use tools from Google to help connect with buyers and renters who use the Internet to research properties. For example, companies can use the Google Maps API to embed customized maps that are useful to potential clients right on their own web pages. Our Google for real estate professionals site contains various methods for generating leads and improving real estate business operations.

Posted by Brian McClendon, VP, Google Earth and Maps

The internet is running out of addresses.

With everything from smartphones to internet-linked appliances and cars getting online, the group entrusted with organising the web is running out of the ‘IP’ numbers that identify destinations for digital traffic.

Google engineer Lorenzo Colitti says one solution is to switch to a standard called IPv6 which would allow trillions of internet addresses, the current IPv4 standard only provides about 4 billion.

He says the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, has been calling for a change to IPv6 for years.

Google, Facebook and other major internet players will add IPv6 addresses to their systems in a one-day trial run on June 8 to let all parties involved check for trouble spots.

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The “father of the internet” says the world is going to run out of internet addresses “within weeks” – and it will be all his fault.

Google’s chief internet evangelist, Vint Cerf, who created the web protocol, IPv4, that connects computers globally, said he had no idea that his “experiment” in 1977 “wouldn’t end”.

“I thought it was an experiment and I thought that 4.3 billion [addresses] would be enough to do an experiment,” he said in group interview with Fairfax journalists.

The protocol underpinning the net, known as IPv4, provides only about 4 billion IP addresses – not website domain names, but the unique sequence of numbers assigned to each computer, website or other internet-connected device.

The explosion in the number of people, devices and web services on the internet means there are only a few million left.

The allocation of those addresses is set to run out very shortly but the industry is moving towards a new version, called IPv6, which will offer trillions of addresses for every person on the planet.

“Who the hell knew how much address space we needed?” Cerf said.

“It doesn’t mean the network stops, it just means you can’t build it very well.”

Google’s leadership shake-up

Cerf said Google’s surprise leadership shake-up was essential because the search giant was beginning to move too slowly.

Today the company announced that Google co-founder Larry Page would take over as chief executive from Eric Schmidt, who has become its executive chairman. Until this point Page and co-founder Sergey Brin ran the company with Schmidt as a “troika”.

“’As we got larger it was harder for us to move as quickly as we would like so I think this is part of the whole practice of speeding up decision processes,” he said.

“Quick rapid execution is absolutely essential, especially in a highly competitive world like this.”

Recent ex-Googlers who left the company to join Facebook, including former Google Australia engineer Lars Rasmussen, have said Google has become too unwieldy as it has grown.

Schmidt gave similar comments in a blog post today, saying that, as Google had grown, managing the business had become “more complicated” and the trio had been “talking for a long time about how best to simplify our management structure and speed up decision making”.

Cerf said Schmidt, 55, had been chief executive for 10 years – “a nice round number” – and Page, now 37, was ready to lead the company into the future.

“Larry and Sergey are 10 years older than they were when they thoughtfully hired Eric to be the CEO … so everybody’s growing up,” Cerf said.

“He was the only guy that stood up to them – these were two young, smart, incredibly brilliant guys who literally had just dropped their PhDs to go start this company.”

It has long been held that Schmidt was brought on at Google to counter the lack of business experience of Google’s founders, and Schmidt alluded to this in a tweet today.

“Day-to-day adult supervision no longer need!” he wrote after the leadership change announcement.

Taking on Facebook

Cerf would not be drawn on whether Google was developing a social networking site to compete with Facebook, as has been rumoured. But he said “our interest is less in the social networking aspect as it is in the patterns of behaviour”.

“We really don’t care about you personally we care about the patterns that you make. If we can match the patterns that you make with the patterns that the advertisers are trying to get in front of you, you benefit as well as the advertisers,” he said.

“This is quite independent of the sort of things that go on in Facebook, which is more about personal information and personal interactions.”

Praising the NBN

Cerf heaped praise on the National Broadband Network, saying Australia was making a long-term investment that would “serve you incredibly well in ways that even I can’t figure out”.

“The idea of being able to export your talents without having to export your people … this is a very attractive proposition,” he said.

“I honestly envy the political will to make this kind of long-term investment.”

Google as ISP?

But despite Google’s work in building municipal Wi-Fi and experimental fibre broadband networks in the US, he said it was unlikely Google would ever become an ISP.

“The intent is that as we build these [networks] out we will then turn them over to some other parties to operate and to make openly accessible,” he said.

“This is not our business model. Our purpose was to document what the costs and problems are … we’re not in the business of building physical infrastructure except for our internal operation.”

Asked whether recent privacy breaches at Sydney University and Vodafone – both of which kept detailed customer records online – highlighted the pitfalls of moving toward hosting everything in the online “cloud”, Cerf said the cloud was not at fault.

“Just because it’s sitting in an enterprise server doesn’t mean that you’re any better protected than you would be in the cloud,” he said.

“When you’re in the cloud business you better be good at securing your systems otherwise you lose all your customers.”

Story source: Asher Moses and Ben Grubb www.theage.com.au

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Google just dropped a bombshell: Eric Schmidt is out as CEO (as announced in the company’s earings report. We’ll be covering the company’s earnings call, which is sure to have more on this.

He will step down from the role starting April 4, and co-founder Larry Page will take charge of Google’s day-to-day operations as CEO. Co-founder Sergey Brin will devote his energy to strategic projects like working on new products.
Schmidt will assume the role of Executive Chairman, focusing externally on deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership–all of which are increasingly important given Google’s global reach. Internally, he will continue to act as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.

On the Official Google Blog, Schmidt writes:
When I joined Google in 2001 I never imagined—even in my wildest dreams—that we would get as far, as fast as we have today. Search has quite literally changed people’s lives—increasing the collective sum of the world’s knowledge and revolutionizing advertising in the process. And our emerging businesses—display, Android, YouTube and Chrome—are on fire. Of course, like any successful organization we’ve had our fair share of good luck, but the entire team—now over 24,000 Googlers globally—deserves most of the credit.
And as our results today show, the outlook is bright. But as Google has grown, managing the business has become more complicated. So Larry, Sergey and I have been talking for a long time about how best to simplify our management structure and speed up decision making—and over the holidays we decided now was the right moment to make some changes to the way we are structured.
For the last 10 years, we have all been equally involved in making decisions. This triumvirate approach has real benefits in terms of shared wisdom, and we will continue to discuss the big decisions among the three of us. But we have also agreed to clarify our individual roles so there’s clear responsibility and accountability at the top of the company.
Larry will now lead product development and technology strategy, his greatest strengths, and starting from April 4 he will take charge of our day-to-day operations as Google’s Chief Executive Officer. In this new role I know he will merge Google’s technology and business vision brilliantly. I am enormously proud of my last decade as CEO, and I am certain that the next 10 years under Larry will be even better! Larry, in my clear opinion, is ready to lead.
Sergey has decided to devote his time and energy to strategic projects, in particular working on new products. His title will be Co-Founder. He’s an innovator and entrepreneur to the core, and this role suits him perfectly.
As Executive Chairman, I will focus wherever I can add the greatest value: externally, on the deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership that are increasingly important given Google’s global reach; and internally as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.
We are confident that this focus will serve Google and our users well in the future. Larry, Sergey and I have worked exceptionally closely together for over a decade—and we anticipate working together for a long time to come. As friends, co-workers and computer scientists we have a lot in common, most important of all a profound belief in the potential for technology to make the world a better place. We love Google—our people, our products and most of all the opportunity we have to improve the lives of millions of people around the world.

Earlier Schmidt wrote an interesting post at Harvard Business Review today indicating that Google’s strategic initiatives for the year are all about mobile. He wrote:

First, we must focus on developing the under­lying fast networks (generally called LTE). These will be 8-to-10- mega­bit networks, roughly 10 times what we have today, which will usher in new and creative applications, mostly entertainment and social, for these phone platforms.

Second, we must attend to the development of mobile money. Phones, as we know, are used as banks in many poorer parts of the world—and modern technology means that their use as financial tools can go much further than that.

Third, we want to increase the availability of inexpensive smartphones in the poorest parts of the world. We envision literally a billion people getting inexpensive, browser-based touchscreen phones over the next few years. Can you imagine how this will change their awareness of local and global information and their notion of education? And that will be just the start.

Here’s the full release including the financials (see the balance sheets here):

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – January 20, 2011 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced financial results for the quarter and the fiscal year ended December 31, 2010.

“Q4 marked a terrific end to a stellar year,” said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. “Our strong performance has been driven by a rapidly growing digital economy, continuous product innovation that benefits both users and advertisers, and by the extraordinary momentum of our newer businesses, such as display and mobile. These results give us the optimism and confidence to invest heavily in future growth — investments that will benefit our users, Google and the wider web.”

In addition, Google has also announced plans to streamline decision making and create clearer lines of responsibility and accountability at the top of the company.

Starting from April 4, Larry Page, Google Co-Founder, will take charge of Google’s day-to-day operations as Chief Executive Officer.Sergey Brin, Google Co-Founder, will devote his energy to strategic projects, in particular working on new products.Eric Schmidt will assume the role of Executive Chairman, focusing externally on deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership–all of which are increasingly important given Google’s global reach. Internally, he will continue to act as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.

Commenting on these changes, Eric said: “We’ve been talking about how best to simplify our management structure and speed up decision making for a long time. By clarifying our individual roles we’ll create clearer responsibility and accountability at the top of the company. In my clear opinion, Larry is ready to lead and I’m excited about working with both him and Sergey for a long time to come.”

Larry said: “Eric has clearly done an outstanding job leading Google for the last decade. The results speak for themselves. There is no other CEO in the world that could have kept such headstrong founders so deeply involved and still run the business so brilliantly. Eric is a tremendous leader and I have learned innumerable lessons from him. His advice and efforts will be invaluable to me as I start in this new role. Google still has such incredible opportunity–we are only at the beginning and I can’t wait to get started.”

Google reported revenues of $8.44 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2010, an increase of 26% compared to the fourth quarter of 2009. Google reports its revenues, consistent with GAAP, on a gross basis without deducting traffic acquisition costs (TAC). In the fourth quarter of 2010, TAC totaled $2.07 billion, or 25% of advertising revenues.

Google reports operating income, operating margin, net income, and earnings per share (EPS) on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis. The non-GAAP measures, as well as free cash flow, an alternative non-GAAP measure of liquidity, are described below and are reconciled to the corresponding GAAP measures in the accompanying financial tables.

GAAP operating income in the fourth quarter of 2010 was $2.98 billion, or 35% of revenues. This compares to GAAP operating income of $2.48 billion, or 37% of revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2009. Non-GAAP operating income in the fourth quarter of 2010 was $3.38 billion, or 40% of revenues. This compares to non-GAAP operating income of $2.76 billion, or 41% of revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2009.GAAP net income in the fourth quarter of 2010 was $2.54 billion, compared to $1.97 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009. Non-GAAP net income in the fourth quarter of 2010 was $2.85 billion, compared to $2.19 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009.GAAP EPS in the fourth quarter of 2010 was $7.81 on 326 million diluted shares outstanding, compared to $6.13 in the fourth quarter of 2009 on 322 million diluted shares outstanding. Non-GAAP EPS in the fourth quarter of 2010 was $8.75, compared to $6.79 in the fourth quarter of 2009.Non-GAAP operating income and non-GAAP operating margin exclude the expenses related to stock-based compensation (SBC). Non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP EPS exclude the expenses related to SBC and the related tax benefits. In the fourth quarter of 2010, the charge related to SBC was $396 million, compared to $276 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. The tax benefit related to SBC was $89 million in the fourth quarter of 2010 and $62 million in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Revenues – Google reported revenues of $8.44 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010, representing a 26% increase over fourth quarter 2009 revenues of $6.67 billion. Google reports its revenues, consistent with GAAP, on a gross basis without deducting TAC.

Google Sites Revenues – Google-owned sites generated revenues of $5.67 billion, or 67% of total revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2010. This represents a 28% increase over fourth quarter 2009 revenues of $4.42 billion.

Google Network Revenues – Google’s partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $2.50 billion, or 30% of total revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2010. This represents a 22% increase from fourth quarter 2009 network revenues of $2.04 billion.

International Revenues – Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $4.38 billion, representing 52% of total revenues in the fourth quarter of 2010, compared to 52% in the third quarter of 2010 and 53% in the fourth quarter of 2009. Excluding gains related to our foreign exchange risk management program, had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the third quarter of 2010 through the fourth quarter of 2010, our revenues in the fourth quarter of 2010 would have been $201 million lower. Excluding gains related to our foreign exchange risk management program, had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the fourth quarter of 2009 through the fourth quarter of 2010, our revenues in the fourth quarter of 2010 would have been $132 million higher. 

Revenues from the United Kingdom totaled $878 million, representing 10% of revenues in the fourth quarter of 2010, compared to 12% in the fourth quarter of 2009.In the fourth quarter of 2010, we recognized a benefit of $25 million to revenues through our foreign exchange risk management program, compared to $8 million in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Paid Clicks – Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 18% over the fourth quarter of 2009 and increased approximately 11% over the third quarter of 2010.

Cost-Per-Click – Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our AdSense partners, increased approximately 5% over the fourth quarter of 2009 and increased approximately 4% over the third quarter of 2010.

TAC – Traffic Acquisition Costs, the portion of revenues shared with Google’s partners, increased to $2.07 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010, compared to TAC of $1.72 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009. TAC as a percentage of advertising revenues was 25% in the fourth quarter of 2010, compared to 27% in the fourth quarter of 2009.

The majority of TAC is related to amounts ultimately paid to our AdSense partners, which totaled $1.74 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010. TAC also includes amounts ultimately paid to certain distribution partners and others who direct traffic to our website, which totaled $333 million in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Other Cost of Revenues – Other cost of revenues, which is comprised primarily of data center operational expenses, amortization of intangible assets, content acquisition costs as well as credit card processing charges, increased to $877 million, or 10% of revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2010, compared to $688 million, or 10% of revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Operating Expenses – Operating expenses, other than cost of revenues, were $2.51 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010, or 30% of revenues, compared to $1.78 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, or 27% of revenues.

Cash – As of December 31, 2010, cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $35.0 billion.

Headcount – On a worldwide basis, Google employed 24,400 full-time employees as of December 31, 2010, up from 23,331 full-time employees as of September 30, 2010.

To read more on this story click here

Story by Chris Crum www.webpronews.com

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Marketing trends—especially in digital—are motivating brands to be more interactive and engaged with their customers. Rather than pushing out interruptive messages that targets will ignore or find annoying, many are working to create marketing experiences that appeal to customers as individuals. And they know if they neglect to do so their brand could be at risk.

In an Alterian survey of marketing professionals, nearly three-quarters said they or their clients tried to create personalized customer experiences through email, the top channel for doing so. Direct mail, website and social media fell far behind but nearly even with each other in the 53% to 59% range.

Notably, less than 9% of respondents said they did not use any of the cited channels for a personalized customer experience. While marketers may not use every channel at their disposal to do so, they recognize the importance of personalization.

Asked specifically about email, a plurality of respondents said they segment their audience and send different messages based on the segmentation. The second-most-popular response, however, was blast emails with basic personalization—which is often not enough to appeal to recipients. Only about half as many said they delivered truly personalized email marketing messages based on individual preferences.

Based on their usage of digital channels for personalized and interactive marketing, most respondents felt their brands could be at risk because of a lack of customer engagement. A majority of that group claimed to be taking action based on problems they had already recognized, but some still did not know where to start. Less than a quarter reported they were fully engaged.

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In contrast to the year-over-year (YoY) declines experienced in 2009, punctuated by a nearly 10% drop in Q3, YoY search spend based on a same-client basis increased by 18.5% in 2010, setting up a positive start to 2011.

Growth of about 35% in Q4 2010 (see more detail below) brought up the overall average, as increases in the first three quarters ranged from roughly 5% to 15% (based on MarketingCharts estimates of SearchIgnite graphical data).

In 2010, Q4 saw particularly strong growth with 35.3% YoY increase in search spend (Q4 2009 YoY search spend was flat). All other underlying metrics in Q4 2010 show positive results, with 20.6% YoY increase in clicks, 2.3% YoY increase in impressions and 17.9% YoY increase in clickthrough rate (CTR).

In particular, search momentum built up throughout the quarter with accelerated spend (YOY Oct +25.4%, Nov +35.3%, Dec +44.8%).

The retail vertical reported even greater increases in search spend (36.6% YoY), average order value (AOV, 31.3% YoY) and conversion rates (22.5% YoY) for Q4 2010 based on same retail spend. Consumers are spending more per order compared to the Q4 2009 holiday season, which SearchIgnite says signifies an improvement in consumer sentiment.

Notably, AOV was up 48.3% YoY in December 2010. This is a significant improvement from 2009, when Q4 AOV declined by 13% YoY.

The top five rankings for total core search queries and total core search share were identical in December 2010, according to new data from comScore. However, Microsoft was the only search provider that saw its share grow, rising 6% from 11.3% to 12%. Google stayed flat with 64.3% share, while Yahoo lost 2.6%, dropping from 19.3% to 18.5%.

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Whether you’re heading home for the holidays or simply escaping to a warmer clime for a little sunshine, you’ll probably want to stay connected while you’re traveling from point A to point B. Public wi-fi access is everywhere—in cafes and even in the friendly skies. Here are some tips to protect your online security when you use public wi-fi.
A public hotspot is a wireless network set up for shared Internet access. The hotspot host buys a wireless access point, connects that device to the Internet, and broadcasts its signal within a public place. Anyone with a wireless card within range of the host’s access point can access its network and use the Internet.
Most proprietors make it quick and easy for customers to use their hotspots. But by minimizing login requirements and avoiding encryption compatibility issues, they disable much of the security built into the wireless device. This is a notable tradeoff. Without encryption, your plain text data passes unprotected through the air as radio signals. Those signals can be intercepted by anyone with a receiver and some basic, widely available tools. When the hotspot you’re on doesn’t use encryption, someone who intercepts your data can read whatever you’ve sent–whether it’s a private email or a user name and password combination.

Although it’s unlikely that nosy hotspot neighbors will put your privacy at risk, you should be on the alert for the most serious hotspot danger: a cybercriminal. These technically savvy hackers have the tools, skills, and patience to work around the limited protection measures some hotspot hosts take.
For example, some cybercriminals have learned to use social engineering methods to con hotspot users into divulging sensitive information. By wi-phishing, a cybercriminal can pre-empt a hotspot’s wireless signal with one of his own, spoof the legitimate network name, and replace the sign-up page with a look-alike. You’ll end up supplying your information to this evil twin, not the hotspot provider. Once you’re on the spoofed hotspot, you may be redirected to other fraudulent or virus-laden Web sites, or even be tricked into setting up a “new account” and providing credit card numbers or other identifying information.

With these security dangers lurking, protecting yourself at public hotspots becomes your own responsibility. Here are some things you can do to keep yourself safe:

Be aware of your surroundings. Make sure no one is peering over your shoulder when you log into your operating system, email, IM, or other accounts. Never leave your laptop or handheld device unattended—not even for a moment. Don’t allow your wireless card to automatically join the nearest network. Instead, manually select the hotspot when you connect. Make sure you’re on a legitimate hotspot by checking with the host to confirm the network name and connection process. Turn off file sharing when you’re using a hotspot, and try to minimize the amount of sensitive, personal data you store on your laptops and mobile devices. You can usually turn off file sharing from your operating system’s network settings menu. Don’t do your online banking or trading at a public hotspot. Save it for a more safe and controlled environment. Limit email and IM to casual communications. If you use IM or email at hotspots, never send anything that should not be made public. Consider setting up an extra Web-based email account to use at hotspots. Don’t surf Web sites you wouldn’t want a stranger to know you’re viewing. Turn off your wireless card when you’re not using it. When you’re on a public hotspot, you have no idea what infections other connected computers might have, or whether there may be a hacker prowling the network. Norton Antivirus or Norton Internet Security–both from Symantec–protect you from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and dangerous intruders. Make wise computing decisions. Always avoid using hotspots for important communications or transactions.

Public wi-fi hotspots can be both friend and foe during your travels, unless you take precautions. It’s up to you to protect your computer, your data, and your privacy with good tools and cautious computing habits. We hope the tips we offered in this article help you to do just that.

Story source: Norton article library

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For example, poll results indicate a majority of Echo Boomers (those 18-33) say they have received a positive suggestion for something to try from their activity on social media (59%), compared to 44% of Gen Xers (those 34-45), one-third of Baby Boomers (those 46-64) (34%), and just one in five Matures (those 65 and older) (19%).

Similarly, one-quarter of Echo Boomers have found a job opportunity through social media (24%), while only one in 10 Baby Boomers say the same (11%).

Despite all of the benefits people are receiving from their social media use, similar numbers say they have suffered negative consequences from this activity, such as the two in five social media users who say they have been offended by posts, comments or pictures they’ve seen (43%) and the quarter who say that unintended persons have viewed links or comments they’ve posted (26%).

Fewer social media users say they have suffered the more serious consequences of getting in trouble with school or work, or losing a potential job opportunity because of comments or pictures they posted online (7% for both).

Despite younger Americans receiving benefits from social media use more often than older adults, younger Americans also suffer the consequences of social media use at a greater rate. This may, in part, be due to younger Americans greater use of social media overall, which could expose them to both the benefits and consequences of what’s currently available.

Social media networks are increasingly offering privacy settings to combat the negative experiences some users have already experienced, and to prevent others from taking place. When social media users were asked if potentially negative experiences can be prevented through the use of these privacy settings, more than three-quarters agreed that they can be (78%) with three in 10 strongly agreeing (28%).

In addition, 71% of social media users are confident that their own privacy settings operate in the way they intend, but only one in five say they are very confident (18%). While a quarter of social media users are not confident in their privacy settings (25%), it seems that almost all social media users are at least trying to use these options for security assurance, as only 5% of social media users say they do not use any privacy settings at all.

Similarly to the other areas of social media explored, younger adults who use social media feel more strongly both that privacy settings can prevent negative consequences (82% of Echo Boomers say this, compared to 70% of Matures) and that they are confident in their own privacy settings (78% of Echo Boomers, compared to 61% of Baby Boomers).

While overall social networking use by online American adults has grown from 35% in 2008 to 61% in 2010, the increase is even more dramatic among older adults, according to new data from the Pew Research Center. In particular, the rate of online social networking approximately quadrupled among Older Boomers (9% to 43%) and the GI Generation (4% to 16%).

Despite the dramatic uptick in social networking among older adults, members of the Millennial generation still enjoy a healthy lead among all age groups in social network use, with 83% of online adults from 18-33 engaging in social networking. This increased about 24% from 67% in 2008.

Gen X has the second-highest social networking rate, 62%, up 73% from two years ago. The rate among Younger Boomers increased by a factor of 2.5, rising from 20% to 50%, while it tripled among the Silent Generation, going from 11% to 34%.

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US marketers will spend $3.08 billion to advertise on social networking sites this year, eMarketer predicts. Spending will be up 55% over the $1.99 billion advertisers devoted to social networks in 2010 and will rise by a further 27.7% next year to reach nearly $4 billion.

This year’s dramatic growth in spending will bring social media ad dollars to 10.8% of the total spent online in the US. Worldwide, where social network ad spending will rise 71.6% to $5.97 billion, that proportion will be somewhat lower, at 8.7%.

The 2011 forecast for US spending is $1 billion higher than eMarketer’s last estimate of US social network ad spending, made in August 2010. The primary driver of the change in projected spending is greater ad spending on Facebook, by far the biggest player in the space.

”2010 was the year that Facebook firmly established itself as a major force not only in social network advertising but all of online advertising,” said eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson, author of the upcoming report “Worldwide Social Network Ad Spending: 2011 Outlook.” “In 2011, its global presence is something multinational advertisers can’t ignore.”

eMarketer predicts ad spending on the world’s top social network will reach $2.19 billion in the US this year and just over $4 billion worldwide—both more than double last year’s figure.

“If Facebook can continue to increase its global user base and boost the amount of revenue it generates per user, it could even surpass these forecasts,” Williamson said. “Facebook must continue to innovate its user experience and its ad platform.”

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Overall, Americans conducted about 18.2 billion total core search queries in December 2010, up 3% from about 17.7 billion the previous month. Top core search query provider Google experienced 3% month-over-month growth, from about 11.4 billion to 11.7 billion queries, while number two Yahoo stayed essentially flat with 3.43 billion queries. Number four Ask Network (-1%) and number five AOL LLC (-5%) both had fewer total core search queries in December 2010 than November 2010.

The top five rankings for total core search queries and total core search share were identical in December 2010, but Microsoft was the only search provider that saw its share grow, rising 6% from 11.3% to 12%. Google stayed flat with 64.3% share, while Yahoo lost 2.6%, dropping from 19.3% to 18.5%.

Microsoft had the highest percentage growth of explicit core search queries among any of the top five explicit core search providers, rising 4% from 1.88 billion to 1.97 billion. Google retained its number one spot with 3% growth, rising from 10.62 billion to 10.95 billion. Yahoo’s explicit core search query total remained essentially flat at 2.63 billion.

Overall, Americans conducted about 16.44 billion explicit core search queries in December 2010, up 3% from about 16.04 billion the prior month.

Explicit core search market share results did not change dramatically between November and December 2010. The top five ranking stayed the same, with Google having the largest growth, increasing its share 0.6% from 66.2% to 66.6%. Microsoft also incrementally grew its share from 11.8% to 12%, while Yahoo lost about 2%, dropping from 16.4% to 16% but remaining in second place.

comScore is also providing data on the share of algorithmic explicit searches that are powered by Google and Bing, and branded as such to the consumer. Google’s “powered by” share is composed of searches conducted at Google entities, as well as branded searches at AOL and Ask. Bing’s “powered by” share is composed of searches conducted at Microsoft entities as well as branded Yahoo entities.

In December, 69.4% of searches carried organic search results from Google, while 24.4% of searches were powered by Bing organic results.

The query volume for Bing-powered search engines (which includes Microsoft Bing as well as Yahoo) grew 4.3% from October to November 2010, increasing from about 4.38 million to 4.57 million, according to recent data from Compete. As opposed to October 2010, when dramatic 16.2% growth in month-over-month Microsoft query volume (almost 1.9 million to 2.2 million) drove most of the Bing-powered query volume increase, Yahoo was the catalyst in November.

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