An excerpt from Gavin O’Malley’s post Lines Between Media Channels Increasingly Blurred

From 2006 to 2008, the share of U.S. consumers using shopping Web sites doubled from 17% to 35%, according to a study released Monday by public relations firm Ketchum and the University of Southern California Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center.

More revealing, perhaps, is that 44% of those online shopping consumers reported reading consumer reviews and comments found on the sites, the study found.