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Monday was day three. I didn’t get as much time as I wanted away from the booth, but I was able to slip into What are Users Doing on the Web, hosted by Joel Greenberg of GSD&M. The panel brought together experts from Google, BuzzMetrics, and Harris Interactive, and the data they revealed were very enlightening.

For example, communications is the killer app on the Web–duh–but the extent to which communication technologies are used (blog, IM, rss/newsfeeds, podcasts, email) is truly staggering across both age groups and nationalities. I was also surprised at how far behind we were as a nation to some of the global trends, like gaming, smartphones, and IM usage.

Another interesting factoid–usage of online games, IM, and chat is fairly high in many groups, including moms with kids. Who knew that this group was playing online games at a rate of 1000+ minutes a month?

When the Buzzmetrics guy spoke, he revealed even more interesting tidbits–for example, in the 1970’s over 60% of folks trusted the advice of fellow purchasers rather than marketers. Fast forward to 2005 and you see that number leap to 90% plus!

Word-of-mouth is virtually the highest integrity form of marketing left on the planet, which is not surprising, given the epic erosion in trust we’ve experienced as a society toward big media and big government. This makes the use of blogs and other w-o-m technologies by “fake grassroots” or corporate-sponsored organizations even more depressing. Paying bloggers to pose as happy customers undermines what has been, until recently, the most effective way to market online.

Oh well.

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