Ms. Adverthinker

Courtesy of Advertising Age this week, we learn that 2007 was the year that women tipped the scale to compose more than 50% of online users. What are they doing online?

• Shopping: travel, clothing, health & beauty products, financial products, and food. Women 45 to 54 were much more likely than men to make impulse purchases online when given limited-time offers or extra free items.
• Gaming: women are more likely to pay for play.
• Viewing video: news, movies previews, and music videos.
• Parenting: more than 43 million moms go online daily and spend an average of 85 minutes there.
• Socializing: women 25-34, with a college degree are more often to search for local dining and entertainment information, use instant messaging, visit social-networking sites, read blogs, and download music.
• Dating: when dating online, they lie about weight more often than any other attribute.
• Staying healthy: almost 84% of all women sought healthcare information online.

The Wall Street Journal is going social, as reported by Brandweek:

“Using SeenThis?, built by the social networking technology developer Loomia, members of Facebook, and eventually various other social networks will be able to receive notifications on what Journal content their friends are reading or sharing – while logged into those sites or visiting WSJ.com. Those users will then be able to check out those articles themselves for free (without having to leave their networking site of choice), and share them with others. For example, a user might receive a notice of the top five articles read by members who attend his or her college.”