Comscore

Hulu has been hailed as the future of television, but its reputation has been based in part on measurement techniques rooted in the past. The highflying online TV site frequently is touted as among the most popular video sites in the U.S., based on data from the industry-leading ComScore measurement service. A recent overhaul of ComScore's methods, however, brought Hulu's numbers crashing to Earth. Hulu's estimated viewership shriveled to 24 million in June, from 43.5 million in May, under ComScore's new methodology.

The Kindle Fire appears to be burning up its competition — on the Android side, anyway. Amazon.com Inc.'s tablet computer is catching on in a big way in the U.S., accounting by end of February for 54.4% of tablets that run Google Inc.'s Android system software. That represented a near doubling of the Fire's Android market share since December, when it was at 29.4%, according to new data from ComScore Inc. The Fire first went on sale in November. In a way, the Kindle Fire is gobbling up the small fish in the pond — far outpacing Samsung's Galaxy Tab (15.4% of Android)

If you are one of the 104 million people in the U.S. who own a smartphone, chances are it's running Google Android, ComScore said in a report released Tuesday. ComScore's report focused on mobile use for the three months ending in February. After surveying more than 30,000 mobile phone subscribers, the company found that Google has continued to grow its share in the U.S. market with 50.1% of all smartphone subscribers using an Android-based phone. In November, Android had 46.9% of the market share.

If you are one of the 104 million people in the U.S. who own a smartphone, chances are it's running Google Android, ComScore said in a report released Tuesday. ComScore's report focused on mobile use for the three months ending in February. After surveying more than 30,000 mobile phone subscribers, the company found that Google has continued to grow its share in the U.S. market with 50.1% of all smartphone subscribers using an Android-based phone. In November, Android had 46.9% of the market share.

Yahoo Inc. handled a larger chunk of U.S. Internet searches last month and Microsoft Corp. lost market share, according to research firm ComScore Inc. Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., had about 20.2% of queries in September, up from 19.6% in August, ComScore said. Microsoft, of Redmond, Wash., had 8.5%, down from 8.9%. Google Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., handled 62.9%, compared with 63% in August. The total number of searches in September was 11.8 billion, compared with 11.7 billion in August, ComScore said.

Yahoo Inc., owner of the second-most popular U.S. search engine, gained a greater share of Web searches in the country last month, according to researcher ComScore Inc. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo's share expanded to 20.5%, up from 20.2% in September, ComScore said. Google Inc. held the lead in October with 63.1%.

Google has surpassed Yahoo to become the most popular website in the U.S., according to Internet tracking firm ComScore Inc.'s rankings by the number of unique monthly visitors. Google Inc. has long been the Internet's leader in search, but its audience has trailed Yahoo Inc.'s when counting other services such as e-mail and photo sharing. April's numbers, which ComScore plans to formally release today, show Google on top for the first time. The lead is tiny -- 466,000 visitors out of about 141 million apiece.

The number of Americans using Twitter dropped 8% in October from September, marking the second monthly decline for the social-networking site this year, according to research firm ComScore Inc. Twitter Inc., the No. 3 social-networking site in the U.S., had 19.2 million users in October, ComScore said. The company had growth of less than 1% in September and declined in August. October's number was still up more than 13-fold from the year-earlier period. The month-to-month drop contrasted with a 2% increase for users of Facebook Inc., the most popular social network.

Google Inc. is getting more social. The Internet giant, which has faltered in its attempts to break into the booming social networking business, is making another bid to counter the growing influence of Silicon Valley rival Facebook Inc. and San Francisco upstart Twitter Inc. Google on Tuesday rolled out a new service dubbed Buzz that it says will make it easier and quicker to share information, photos and videos with friends on its popular Internet...

EHarmony Inc. Chief Executive Gregory Waldorf has resigned from the dating website that he's run for almost five years. Waldorf, 42, will be replaced on an interim basis by Greg Steiner, EHarmony's president and chief operating officer, while the board conducts a search for a permanent CEO, the Santa Monica company said Tuesday. "As EHarmony begins its second decade, the time is right for me to step down," Waldorf said in a statement, without providing a reason for leaving.

EHarmony Inc. Chief Executive Gregory Waldorf has resigned from the dating website that he's run for almost five years. Waldorf, 42, will be replaced on an interim basis by Greg Steiner, EHarmony's president and chief operating officer, while the board conducts a search for a permanent CEO, the Santa Monica company said Tuesday. "As EHarmony begins its second decade, the time is right for me to step down," Waldorf said in a statement, without providing a reason for leaving.

Hulu has been hailed as the future of television, but its reputation has been based in part on measurement techniques rooted in the past. The highflying online TV site frequently is touted as among the most popular video sites in the U.S., based on data from the industry-leading ComScore measurement service. A recent overhaul of ComScore's methods, however, brought Hulu's numbers crashing to Earth. Hulu's estimated viewership shriveled to 24 million in June, from 43.5 million in May, under ComScore's new methodology.

Some familiar names were scribbled in the corner of a white board: Amazon. Google. Craigslist. EBay. PayPal. Above them was an unfamiliar one: Milo. "We're aiming high," explained Jack Abraham, the 24-year-old co-founder and chief executive of Milo.com Inc., a Web start-up that aims to become the go-to site for the millions of shoppers who research online before buying merchandise in brick-and-mortar stores. So far, Abraham, the son of ComScore Inc. founder and CEO Magid Abraham, is precisely where he wants to be. If he isn't the first second-generation Internet entrepreneur, he's part of a small club -- and the only one to occupy a storied Silicon Valley address that has a certain cachet.

Google Inc. is getting more social. The Internet giant, which has faltered in its attempts to break into the booming social networking business, is making another bid to counter the growing influence of Silicon Valley rival Facebook Inc. and San Francisco upstart Twitter Inc. Google on Tuesday rolled out a new service dubbed Buzz that it says will make it easier and quicker to share information, photos and videos with friends on its popular Internet...

The number of Americans using Twitter dropped 8% in October from September, marking the second monthly decline for the social-networking site this year, according to research firm ComScore Inc. Twitter Inc., the No. 3 social-networking site in the U.S., had 19.2 million users in October, ComScore said. The company had growth of less than 1% in September and declined in August. October's number was still up more than 13-fold from the year-earlier period. The month-to-month drop contrasted with a 2% increase for users of Facebook Inc., the most popular social network.

Facebook Inc., after eclipsing MySpace in global users last year, now leads its social-networking rival in the U.S. as well, according to research firm ComScore Inc. The Palo Alto, Calif., company had 70.28 million U.S. users last month, topping MySpace's 70.26 million, ComScore said. Facebook's users almost doubled from a year earlier, while MySpace lost 5%. Facebook, which became the top global social-networking site a year ago, had 307.1 million users worldwide in April, the Reston, Va.

Dreams of an egalitarian, people-driven Internet are being trampled by ruthless corporate hegemons who will not stop until they've built the Web into a giant Babylon of mindless commerce. Translation: Online shopping is better than ever! If you did even a little of your holiday gift buying online, you know that doing it from your desk beats the madness of a "physical" shopping spree on just about every count -- especially in L.A. Growing up in Massachusetts, Heather Sabin used to hit the mall with friends or family and make a festive day out of seasonal shopping.

Michael Wolff is over journalism. The media columnist for Vanity Fair thinks that the ailing vocation has gotten in the way of what modern info seekers really crave: news. As he tells the story, in recent decades the people who call themselves journalists have bloated the news with their self-importance and their desire for prestige, losing sight of what's interesting. Then the Internet arrived and gave people a faster, more efficient way to get their info fix. In a decade that's seen the expansion of the Internet, cable news, cellphones and social networking, most young people are about as likely to buy a newspaper as a Walkman.

Dreams of an egalitarian, people-driven Internet are being trampled by ruthless corporate hegemons who will not stop until they've built the Web into a giant Babylon of mindless commerce. Translation: Online shopping is better than ever! If you did even a little of your holiday gift buying online, you know that doing it from your desk beats the madness of a "physical" shopping spree on just about every count -- especially in L.A. Growing up in Massachusetts, Heather Sabin used to hit the mall with friends or family and make a festive day out of seasonal shopping.

Yahoo Inc., owner of the second-most popular U.S. search engine, gained a greater share of Web searches in the country last month, according to researcher ComScore Inc. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo's share expanded to 20.5%, up from 20.2% in September, ComScore said. Google Inc. held the lead in October with 63.1%.