Market research firm Nielsen put together some interesting, if not slightly disparaging, figures on the state of high definition programming. Here's the deal. The majority of U.S. households -- 56 percent -- own an HD television, which is "one of the most quickly adopted consumer entertainment technologies of the past 20 years." But even though the hardware is in place, standard definition programming still rules.

"Only 13 percent of total day viewing on cable and 19 percent of viewing on broadcast television is 'true HD' viewing, which requires an HD television and HD tuner that are tuned to an HD channel," Nielsen said. "In other words, despite the billions of dollars that Americans have spent buying high definition TVs, more than 80 percent of television viewing is still a standard definition experience."

Nielsen identifies a few different reasons for the disparity. First, some 44 percent of homes either don't own an HD set or subscribe to HD service. Secondly, most homes have at least one non-HD TV, of which about one-third of programming is viewed. And finally, that swank HD set in your living room still views non-HD programming about 20 percent of the time.

Peering into its crystal ball, Nielsen says HD viewing will continue to increase as kids and teens get HD sets in their rooms and as cable and satellite providers switch HD channels for SD where available.

Let's face it, no one's going to topple Google in the search game, at least not any time soon. That means the real race is for second place, and it's there that Microsoft's Bing and Yahoo's Yahoo Search run neck in neck.

Which search engine leads the pack from second place depends on who you ask, and if you put your faith in Nielsen's numbers, then Bing just inched ahead of Yahoo in the international search game.

"Nielsen's search data only counts genuine intentional searches that people type into a search box," Nielsen explains. "It does not include non-intended or 'contextual' searches that are automatically generated by search engines based on a person's browsing behavior."

With Nielsen's formula in place, the research firm says says Bing controlled 13.9 percent of the search market in August, up just barely from July. Yahoo, meanwhile, slid backwards 1.5 percentage points from 14.6 percent in July to 13.1 percent in August.

Have you been on Facebook today? How about Twitter, YouTube, or any other of the scores of social networking sites scattered across the Web? Chances are you've visited at least one of them, and if Nielsen's latest stats are correct, you'll spend about six hours this month on social networking sites and blogs.

According to Nielsen, users are now spending 23 percent of their Internet time on social networking sites, a leap of 7 percentage points from this same time last year. This ranks as the biggest jump for any of Nielsen's online categories, which also include checking email, using Web portals, and playing games. And if we widen the social umbrella to also include communicating via blogs, personal email, and instant messaging, that number jumps to 36 percent.

"Despite the almost the almost unlimited nature of what you can do on the Web, nearly half of U.S. online time is spent on three activities -- social networking, playing games, and emailing," says Dave Martin, vice president of primary research at Nielsen.

Other activities, like shopping and random Web searches, haven't changed a whole lot, while watching online videos increased slightly from 3.5 percent to 3.9 percent from June 2009 to June 2010.

This whole mobile thing is really catching on, as women, teens, and seniors 65 and older are finding out. According to Nielsen, web visitors using a mobile device shot up 34 percent year-over-year, catapulting from 42.5 million mobile surfers in July 2008 to just shy of 57 million in July 2009. And most of those visitors are from the three previously mentioned demographics.

In fact, year-over-year growth among teens aged 13-17 increased 45 percent, while seniors shot up by over 67 percent, Nielsen said. Those were the two most active demographics, and while male surfers still make up the majority of the mobile Web at 53 percent, visitors of the opposite sex outpaced their male counterparts in July.

"As with other forms of Internet technology, more men were early-adopters of the mobile Web and still make up a slightly larger presence today," commented Chris Quick, client services manager, mobile media. "Now that the technology is more mainstream, women are quickly embracing the benefits as 'connected customers,' tapping the convenience of Web access on mobile phones to network, browser the latest shopping deals, and get ideas for dinner, all while on the go."

An interesting side note: People.com (No. 1), MySpace.com (No. 5), and Facebook.com (No. 9) were among the top 10 mobile sites among women in July, while men were busy surfing Gizmodo.com (No. 1), Maxim.com (No. 2), and Wired.com (No. 10).