"Most [marketers] peg 2007 as the year women tipped the scale to compose more than 50 percent of online users," writes Beth Snyder Bulik in her Advertising Age online article What Women Want (on the Net, That Is). And women's Internet preferences are often different from those of the 18-to-34-year-old men marketers have traditionally courted.

Among women, politics and "women's community" were the most popular Internet categories in 2007, according to ComScore Media Metrix. Women's community sites, as a group, showed the largest increase in unique visits, rising by 35 percent last year. And female bloggers, especially those writing about motherhood, are a growing presence on the Web.

Bulik cites a number of recent studies to answer the "what do women want?" question:

• Women watched 27 percent more online video in 2007 than they did in 2006 (Pew Internet and American Life Study).
• Women are frequent shoppers, gravitating toward travel, clothing, health and beauty products, financial products, and food or groceries. Women are also more likely to buy on impulse while online (Burst Media).
• More than 43 million mothers use the Internet daily and spend an average of 85 minutes online. Mothers and fathers alike are very involved in monitoring how their children use the Internet. But mothers are typically more cautious (ComScore).
• Although men and women play casual computer games in nearly equal numbers, women are more likely to pay for casual games (Casual Games Association).
• Single women are more likely than other women to watch full-length TV shows and video clips online, search for local dining entertainment information, use instant messaging, visit social-networking sites, read blogs and download music (Jupiter Research).
• Women are more likely than men to look for health information on the Web. Fifty percent say they consult the Internet more than they consult their doctors (Burst Media).