Internet Milestones

• Internet advertising revenues reached a new record of $3.9 billion for the first quarter of 2006, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The 2006 first quarter revenues represent a 38% increase over Q1 2005 at $2.8 billion and a 6% increase over Q4 2005 total at $3.6 billion.

• In the past year, the number of online users has reached an estimated 172 million, a 5% increase, according to Harris Interactive. In research among 2,032 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone in February and April 2006, Harris found that 77% of adults are now online, up from 74% in February/April 2005 and 66% in the spring of 2002. When Harris first began to track Internet use in 1995, only 9% of adults reported then went online. The proportion of adults who are now online at home has risen to 70%, up from 66% in 2005 and 55% in the spring of 2002.

• The Boston Globe announced yesterday that it will stop publishing daily stock and mutual fund listings starting on June 20. The paper "will offer enhanced online investment tools and market news as well as a new Money & Markets page in the paper."

We knew that one was coming -- other papers have already made the move -- but it still makes me a little sad to think of some veteran stock watcher, who doesn't happen to have Internet access, without the daily charts.