New 'fact finder' toy from Google

You need never be lost for words again. A colleague just sent me this link to Google Internet Stats, a search engine dedicated to serving up stats on whatever you're keen to find out about. I type in 'Social Networking' and this comes out:

• In mid-2008, social networking accounted for around 10% of worldwide online time. This is a category that didn't exist 3 years ago. Nielsen, March 2009

• Of the 282.7 million European Internet users age 15 and older who went online via a home or work computer in December 2008, 211 million visited a social networking site – representing a penetration of 74.6%. Comscore, February 2009

• eMarketer estimates that 39% of UK Internet users - more than 15.4 million people - will use social networks at least once per month in 2009. By 2013, the social networking population will reach 21.9 million and represent 50% of UK Web users. eMarketer, May 2009

• Over 90% of online merchants are planning to add rich media and social networking functions in 2009.Internet Retailing, February 2009

And when I entered 'Facebook', it gave me:

• 5% of all time online is spent on Facebook. Comscore, April 2009

I'm tempted to start tweeting out random facts - but no. I think I shall keep all this new knowledge to myself until lulls in the conversation at the bus-stop ...