Market research firm ComScore recently released its report “2013 U.S. Digital Future in Focus.” Although the study is U.S.-centric, there are data and trends that are quite probably also applicable to other markets including this bundle of islands we call home.

Some of the study’s key findings are:

The social media market has matured beyond being merely online depositories of baby pictures and prank videos. While Facebook continued to dominate the market, with Zuckerberg’s networking site grabbing 5 of every 6 minutes that consumers spend on social media sites, players in this market have turned their focus on creating strong business models and ways to generate revenue.

Now, before you say “business models” and “revenue” are things that drive away fun faster than an unbending librarian, these are what might spell the difference between these companies continuing to be able to provide us with a free platform for wasting time online and them having to fold up and giving way to other new social media players.

I know, you’d say that is not actually a bad thing.

The study also found the online video market is showing signs of maturing in terms of consumption, while efforts to generate revenue (again, that necessary evil) is accelerating. The market’s dominant player, YouTube, for example, is expanding its advertising efforts.

This should bring a smile to every online celebrity wannabe and budding online video producer out there.

Google Leads, Bing Grows

While Bing has so far failed to live up to its billing as a giant-slayer, it has at least expanded its share of the online search market, fortifying its hold on the market’s second place. Google has resoundingly retained the crown as the world’s largest online search engine.

Not all things, however, are sweet in the online search market right now. The desktop search market in the United States, ComScore’s study shows, has exhibited signs of slowing down, dropping 3 percent in 2012.

Smartphones Grab Half Of Market

Also in 2012, smartphones accounted for 50 percent of the mobile phone market in the United States. Android, for its part, went over the 50-percent milestone, capturing the majority of the smartphone market for the first time.

Protection for Minors

Facebook continues the gradual introduction of its Graph Search in-site search function, which leverages the social network’s nearly unfathomably large hoard of data about its more than a billion users. Zuckerberg and company, however, are making it quite clear that minors will get “special privacy protections.”

This means that a Facebook user can find who among his or her FB friends are old enough and “love” going to a certain kind of establishments along Quezon Boulevard, for example. And prepare an invite list based on the search results.

Europol Busts Cybercriminals

The European police agency said it had busted a Russian-led cybercrime gang that earned millions of euros from online users across more than 30 countries by convincing them to pay bogus fines for “improper use” of the Internet.

In December 2012, the Russian boss of the cyber-mob was arrested in Dubai, while 10 of his cohorts — six Russians, two Ukrainians, and two Georgians — were recently nabbed in Spain.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.