If you took a guess at what sites get all the traffic online, you'd might guess that Google searches and social networking suck all our time online, and the rest goes to shopping. Actually, no.

To get a rough estimate of how the Internet is actually being used, the BBC charted the top 100 sites by unique users in January 2010, encompassing the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Brazil, U.S., and Australia.

BlackBerry users were almost equally likely to say they would switch to iPhones or Android phones if they purchased a new smartphone.

In addition, nearly all iPhone and Android users said they would recommend their respective operating systems to friends.

While Android users reported downloading the most free applications over the past seven days, iPhone owners came in ahead when the question was limited to paid apps.

The most common online tool used for local research was search. Nearly one-half of respondents used Internet yellow pages and 42% checked comparison-shopping sites before heading to local businesses.

Mixed messages on social media

US marketing executives were much more optimistic about the economic outlook in February 2010 than they were the year before, when the recession was in full swing, and many were planning to increase budgets, according to the “Marketing Trends Report 2010” from Anderson Analytics and the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG). But they have become even more focused on getting a good return on their marketing investments.

While Q3 2009 data showed e-mail on top for content-sharing, February 2010 information from social optimization platform Gigya points to Facebook as the Web’s top social sharing hub.

Almost one-half of article links, videos, photos and other content shared via Gigya’s widgets are posted to Facebook, with another 29% broadcast through tweets.

While some studies show consumers are willing to reveal their data for targeted ads, which they might be more willing to click on, others indicate Internet users are worried that advertisers have too much personal info.

Brand marketers want consumers to follow them to build buzz and engagement, but social media users often desire something in return. What they’ve come to expect is a good deal, but many consumers—including the most active users of social sites—are also interested in deeper engagement.