U.S. online traffic to classifieds Web sites increased 84 percent in February 2009 compared with last year according to a new report from Hitwise.

As the state of the U.S. economy has declined, visits to classifieds Web sites have continued to increase, up 28 percent from December 2008 to February 2009.

“Consumers have embraced free classifieds as a way to generate income by selling personal items, while others take advantage of the deals available at the fire sales,” said Heather Dougherty, Hitwise research director.

“Currently the economy is driving the growth among online classifieds, but satisfied buyers may continue to turn to the Web sites when researching purchases.”

The market share of U.S. Internet visits increased 90 percent to the Craigslist Cities custom category year-over-year in February 2009, while visits to all other classifieds grew 22 percent. This trend indicates that the U.S. economy may be boosting visits to classifieds Web sites and contributing to the recent increase in visits to both Craigslist and all other classifieds.

Online consumers have moved from cutting back to price-conscious spending and are using the Internet to find the best deals, according to a new survey from PriceGrabber.com.

The survey found that online consumers spend more time online and used the Internet to research their purchases. One in four online consumers said the recession led them to spend more time online.

The majority (94%) of online consumers used the Internet to compare prices, 67 percent searched for coupons, and 52 percent visited social networks. Ninety-one said they felt more confident about their product purchases after researching online, while another 37 percent purchased products on the Internet to reduce impulse buying.

Online consumers are still buying big-ticket items when they find good deals. In the past few months, 53 percent of online consumers said they have taken or planned to take advantage of aggressive sales on big-ticket items in one or more of the following categories: electronics (30%), home improvement (20%), kitchen items (12%) and furniture (12%).

Forty percent of online consumers 18 to 34 years of age purchased or planned to purchase big-ticket electronics on sale, compared with only 26 percent of consumers 55 years of age or older.

At the end of 2008, only 11 percent of global wireless subscriptions were 3G. By the end of 2013, the percentage of 3G and 4G subscriptions will reach 30 percent, according to In-Sat.

Going forward, WiMAX will have to prove itself over the next couple of years with the rise of HSPA and LTE. In-Stat says mobile WiMAX will be popular in developing countries and remote locations where fixed broadband networks are not yet deployed. It’s still not clear if mobile WiMAX will be competitive in locations with existing 3G cellular and fixed broadband networks.

“Based on contract awards, WiMAX deployments are remaining resilient in the face of the economic slowdown, although some operators are slowing the deployment rate,” says Daryl Schoolar, In-Stat analyst.

“The WiMAX equipment heavyweights of Alcatel-Lucent, Alvarion, Motorola and Samsung are benefitting from the trend. Other vendors to watch include Cisco, Huawei and ZTE.”

802.16e, the mobile standard for WiMAX, has been mainly deployed for fixed and nomadic services. Clearwire, Korea Telecom, and UQ of Japan are among the few exceptions that are embracing 802.16e for mobile data applications.

A new survey of online grocery shoppers revealed that consumers don’t just hope to get a great deal, they expect special offers as part of their shopping experience.

When market research agency Buckingham Research asked over 500 online shoppers whether or not they expected retailers to provide special offers such as percentage-off discounts or BOGOF, a massive 89% said yes, they did. In fact, 18% considered special offers to be ‘the norm’.

Just 8% said they felt special offers weren’t to be expected and 3% didn’t know.

“These results prove that the recession is actively impacting on our expectations as shoppers,” said Lucy Pedrick, Research Director at Buckingham Research. 

It should come as no surprise to online retailers that cash-strapped consumers are looking for a bargain. Retailers should be meeting those expectations or run the risk of turning consumers away, not least the determined 4% in Buckingham Research’s survey who said they would not use a store that had no special offers.

Many consumers are searching through multiple sites before making a purchase, and special offers are sure to sway their decisions. They’re also actively searching for sites with money-saving offerings. Recent comScore data showed a marked increase in the use of search terms relating to money-saving techniques. Searches for “coupon” doubled to 19.9 million in December, 2008, while “discount” rose 26% to 6.3 million. 

More so, consumers know that stores are, or should be, actively competing for their business. Nearly a third (32%) thought special offers were now a standard component of online retail strategy.

Other reasons consumers expected special offers were:

- 18% anticipated special offers as part of any shopping experience as they always like to look for a good deal

- 16% said that they expected special offers as a result of their own monetary and economic concerns, 75% specifically referenced the current financial crisis

U.S. visits to stock related Web sites increased 19 percent in February 2009 compared with February 2008, according to a new report from Hitwise.

The stocks and shares category accounted for 1.11 percent of all U.S. Internet visits in February 2009- ranking as the third-highest month in the past year, behind October and September 2008. The average time spent within the category was 11 minutes and 24 seconds, an increase of 14 percent over February 2008.

“With recent declines in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index, consumers are increasingly turning to Web sites to monitor financial news and portfolio performance,” said Heather Dougherty, director of research, Hitwise.

“There is a strong need for continuous information, particularly during economic uncertainty, that provides an opportunity to drive repeat visits and increase customer communication - especially advice that could help customers weather the storm.”

Yahoo Finance was the most visited Web site in the category, with 22.21 percent. MSN Money received the second -highest number of visits (7.32 %), followed by CNN Money (7.16%).

Among the top 300 search terms sending traffic to the stocks and shares category, 64 percent were for branded terms. Stock searches made up 20 percent, and generic searches mad e up 16 percent.

The top search terms by brand were for Sirius XM driven by talks of potential bankruptcy filing, Bank of America, General Electric, Pure Spectrum and Cross Atlantic Commodities round out the top five search terms for the month. The top generic search terms were “currency converter”, “gold price”, “gold prices”, “exchange rates”, and “gold.”

Light PC Internet users in the U.S. are 30 percent more likely than heavy PC Internet users to use their mobile devices to access online content, according to a new study from comScore.

In total, 42 million people used their mobile device in October 2008 to access news and information online, an increase of 57 percent from October 2007.

The study found that 15.2 percent of light PC Internet users accessed news and information on their mobile device at least once per week, compared to a lower 11.7 percent of heavy PC Internet users.

comScore defined “heavy” PC Internet users as those who viewed, on average, 6,701 pages in the month, and “light” users as those who viewed, on average, 1,104 pages in the month. Tenty percent of PC Internet users in the cross-media panel were classified as heavy users, and accounted for 43 percent of overall pageviews, while 50 percent were light users and accounted for 18 percent of page views. The balance was classified as medium users.

“The findings affirm that mobile Internet users comprise a substantial segment of the population, and suggest that a significant portion of these people are using mobile to supplement their at-home online media diet,” said Brandon Starkoff, VP/Mobile Activation Director at media agency Starcom USA.

“Understanding these emerging mobile behavior patterns is valuable to marketers looking for opportunities to increase scale and deliver valuable consumer experiences.”

The mobile broadband market will continue its rapid growth during the next five years and generate new revenue streams for mobile network operators according to a new report, “Mobile broadband in Europe: forecasts and analysis 2009-2014,” by Analysys Mason.

There will be 148 mobile broadband connections in Europe by 2014, when they will make up nearly half of all broadband connections in the region. Prepaid subscriptions will account for 59 percent of mobile broadband connections in 2014, up from 8 percent in 2008.

“Mobile broadband will be the key growth driver in Europe during the next five years,” argues Matt Hatton, Principal Analyst, Analysys Mason and author of the report.

“As growth in voice service revenue stagnates, mobile broadband provides operators with an opportunity to tap into a valuable new revenue stream – and they can not afford to miss out.”

Mobile broadband services will generate revenue of EUR23 billion ($29 billion) in Europe in 2014, compared with EUR6 billion in 2008 ($7.5 billion), which represents a compound annual growthr ate of 46 percent.

“The key development in the mobile broadband market during the next five years will be the growing proportion of casual users,” said Hatton. “

“These subscribers will have different usage profiles from the early adopters and landline-replacement users who have dominated the customer base until now.”

U.S. consumers are paying more attention to their finances and using online banking more frequently to access their accounts during the current financial crisis, according to a new study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Fiserv.

Nearly three-quarters (71%) of consumers said they were watching their finances more closely than they did a year a go. Online banking usage increased more than any other banking channel, with 28 percent of consumers reporting they are using online banking more than they did a year ago, and 63 percent said managing all of their accounts online from one site would help the feel more in control of their finances.

By comparison, only 10 percent of the 1,009 U.S. consumers surveyed reported increasing their ATM use, just 9 percent visit their bank branch more often, and 4 percent are calling customer service more often than they did a year ago.

“In these difficult times, financial institutions are looking for new ways to reach out to consumers and provide value,” said Todd Lesher, division president, Fiserv Electronic Banking Services. “This survey indicates that online banking is still a great opportunity for financial institutions looking to strengthen their ties with consumers.”

“Consumers are using online banking more frequently to monitor their cash flow, manage their finances more actively and save money on stamps. Financial institutions are playing an important role by providing new and innovative online tools to help consumers weather the financial storm.”

The growing interest in social networking has many people looking beyond the computer and mobile screens to their television sets according to a new study by ABI Research.

People are looking to extend their social networks to the TV, as 36 percent of those who currently use social media on a regular basis say they would like to access their networks on TV.

“Just as video entertainment is moving fluidly across various screens, so is social media,” says senior analyst Jason Blackwell.

“We’ve seen that consumers find increased value through shared entertainment experiences and want to explore and deepen these experiences through communities of interest; and that’s what social TV will ultimately do.”

Younger people are more interested in connecting with their friends through chat and messaging, while middle-aged people are more likely to be interested in more passive social networking behavior such as checking status updates.

The most popular potential application for those over 50 who expressed interest in TV social networking was being able to see what their friends were watching on TV.

“Today we already see tens of millions of consumers engaging in communities in the living room through online console gaming services,” adds Blackwell.

“Just as this interest community has seen rapid growth in the past few years, we expect the extension of Web 2.0 technologies to the living room to propel growth in new communities of interest.”

Online retail sales in the U.S. is expected to grow 11 percent in 2009, according to Forrester Research.

Forrester predicts the total to be spent online will be $156 billion, up from $141 billion last year, with growth decreasing from 13 percent in 2008 and 18 percent in 2007.

“The reason is obvious: falling consumer confidence due to the recession,” wrote Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru in the report, which will be released in its entirety on Monday as part of a five-year forecast.

The fact remains that online retail will continue to grow as shoppers look for bargains and convenience.

Even as companies continue to struggle, the important take-away is that the Web is continuing to grow,” Mulpuru said. “It’s taking wallet share away from the rest of the retail world.”

Mulpuru cited traditional stores like Best Buy and Macy’s whose online sale continue to increase despite lower in store sales.

“That’s pretty standard that the web divisions of all of these companies are faring much better than the rest of the business. Those are the ones grabbing disproportionate market share,” she said.