More than half (62%) of Americans who are currently employed use the Internet to email at work and they have mixed feelings about the impact technology has on their work lives according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The positives are the increased connectivity and flexibility that the Internet gives them at work but the downside is many workers say the Internet has added stress and new demands to their lives.

The survey found that the overwhelming majority (96%) of workers use the Internet, email or have a cell phone for some purpose in their lives. Eighty percent say these technologies have improved their ability to do their job.

Close to three quarters (73%) say these technologies have improved their ability to share ideas with co-workers. More than half (58%) say these tools have allowed them more flexibility in the hours they work.

Just under half (49%) say these technologies increase the level of stress in their job and 49 percent these technologies make it harder for them to disconnect from their work whne they are at home and on the weekends. Forty-six percent say these tools increase demands that they work more hours.

“American workers have a love-hate relationship with technology,” said Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist with the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and co-author of the report.

“Along with the benefits of increased connectivity comes a host of new issues into workers’ lives. How do you strike a work-life balance when you are always reachable by the boss? What counts as overtime work when you are ‘on the clock’ at all hours? How much personal online browsing can you do while you are sitting in your cubicle? These challenges pervade many work places today.”

Even with economic turmoil throughout most of this year, the majority of online retailers remain cautiously optimistic about how their businesses will perform in the next 12 months.

The majority (72%) of online retailers believe that the online channel is better suited to weather an economic slowdown than offline channels, according to The State of Retailing Online 2008, from Shop.org conducted by Forrester Research.

“Internet retailers have good reason for optimism as budget-focused shoppers head to the web for value and convenience,” said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org. “Online retailers are well-positioned to make the best of a potentially lean holiday season.”

Thirty-five percent of online retailers surveyed said they expect their online business to perform better than expected in the next 12 months and 33 percent believe their online business will perform the same as expected.

This optimistic outlook is mainly due to past results. According to the report, 81 percent of online retailers said their ecommerce business was profitable in 2007, and 75 percent were also more profitable last year than in 2006.

Close to half (49%) of online retailers said their average conversion rate in 2007 was higher than in 2006, and that 36 percent of total sales for online retailers were due to repeat customers. Because of their outlook for the US economy, 37 percent of survey respondents indicated that they’ve lowered their expectations for their online business performance in the next 12 months.

“Although the online sales growth rate will be lower than in years’ past because of lowered consumer confidence and credit working against all of retail, the good news is that this growth will still outpace nearly every other sector of consumer spending,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, Forrester Research principal analyst and lead author of the report.

“Given that the web appears to be a preferred channel for many consumers during an economic downturn, retailers would be well served to provide offers that motivate customers to buy, and to encourage the online channel to drive sales in a channel-agnostic manner in order to provide benefits to the entire business.”

The majority (69%) of online Americans use webmail services, store data online or use software programs whose functionality is online, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

 By doing so these users are making use of cloud computing which allows them to access data through any Internet enabled device. Users who take advantage of cloud applications say they like the convenience of having access to data on any Internet enabled device.

 “Even as large numbers of users turn to ‘cloud computing’ applications, many may lack a full understanding of possible consequences of storing personal data online,” said John B. Horrigan, Associate Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project and author of the report.

 “These findings give consumers, the technology community, and policymakers a chance to discuss the trade offs between convenience and privacy and figure out where there are needs for education to improve public understanding.”

 More than half (56%) of Internet users use online services such as Hotmail, Gmail, or Yahoo Mail. Thirty-four percent store personal photos online and 29 percent use online applications such as Google Documents or Adobe Photoshop Express.

 More than half (51%) of Internet users who have done clued computing say the main reason they do is it is easy and convenient. Forty-one percent say a major reason they use cloud applications is that they like being able to access their data from whatever computer they are using.

Most peoples reactions to marketing and advertising messages on their mobile phones is initially often negative, a recent survey from ABI research found that responsiveness can be improved through incentives.

Thirty-seven percent of those who have received text advertisements have indicated they are more likely to respond to advertising if the message they received offered an incentive such as a retail coupon or a free song or ringtone, compared to 11 percent who said such incentives had no impact.

“We think that in general, advertisers and operators must tread carefully when delivering marketing messages to a consumer’s mobile handset, especially given that many subscribers believe they are paying a significant amount of money for their mobile services,” says research director Michael Wolf.

“However, we believe that marketing and advertising messaging that is properly crafted and that utilizes incentives could enjoy more acceptance on the part of the consumer.”

Incentives that received the most positive response were real-world discounts and coupons for retail stores. Sixty-percent of those were either neutral or open to text message marketing offering a discounted coupon at a local retailer as the incentive they would most likely respond to. The nest most popular incentives were free ringtone and songs.

“As more content and applications move through both messaging systems and browsers, advertisers are going to need to consider how best to package advertising,” said Wolf.

“We believe that most consumers will ultimately be amenable to limited marketing on their mobile phones, particularly that which is non-intrusive, targeted, and that can bring them some kind of value in the form of both real-world and digital media-based incentives.”