According to a new report by Experian Hitwise, 91% of online adults now regularly use social media in some form or another. This makes social networking the top online activity in the U.S. today, with 15% of all U.S. Internet visits going to a social networking site. Experian’s report also found that Pinterest is now the third most popular social network in the U.S., right behind Facebook and Twitter. What’s more interesting than those rankings, though, is what the report tells us about social media’s most fervent users.

Experian, for example, found that people who use social media regularly are significantly more likely to fly on Virgin Atlantic than the average online adult. These social media users are also more likely to drive a Saab, own an iPhone, eat at Au Bon Pain, Chevy’s and Chipotle, and shop at Payless Shoe Source and Victoria’s Secret.

Interestingly, those adults who visit professional networking sites like LinkedIn more than the average Internet user actually prefer United Airlines (they are probably more interested in collecting frequent flyer miles and getting upgrades), Whole Foods and The Cheesecake Factory. Just like the average social media user, though, those who regularly frequent professional social networking sites are also more likely to own an iPhone than the average U.S. adult.

The acquisition price was not disclosed, although we’ve heard unconfirmed reports from sources that it was in the $20 million – $30 million range. SafetyWeb had raised a total of $8.75 million in venture capital from Battery Ventures and First Round Capital.

SafetyWeb first launched in 2009 to provide parents with a way to monitor their children’s online activities. Earlier this year they announced a number of acquisitions and expanded their product offerings into mobile and personal identity protection for adults as well via MyId.com.

It’s a good outcome for SafetyWeb, its investors and co founder Geoffrey Arone. This is Arone’s third startup. He cofounded Flock (acquired by Zynga earlier this year) and DanceJam (acquired by Grind Networks in 2010). Disclosure: I was in investor in DanceJam.

The LA-based company has hired Ben Trenda, formerly VP of Global Partnerships at AOL, as Vice President of U.S. Demand and Eric Matza, former Vice President of Product Management at Experian, as Director of Product Marketing.

Former Product Marketing and Brand Development Director at Rubicon Project, Marwan Soghaier, meanwhile has moved on to become the new VP of Marketing and Product at online and mobile marketing firm mobileStorm.

At Rubicon Project, Ben Trenda will be in charge of relationships with ad networks and other third-party sales channel partners to ensure they have access to targeted premium inventory and audience segments. He has quite a bit of experience under his belt: prior to AOL, Trenda led a West Coast sales team for Advertising.com, and before that he held roles in the Strategic Alliances group at Yahoo and before that, in sales at Overture and GoTo.

Two things are worth noting: this isn’t the first AOL exec to make the switch to Rubicon Project: the company recently appointed AOL / Platform A vet Oli Whitten to oversee and develop relationships with online advertising networks across Europe. AOL also partners with Rubicon Project in continental Europe.

Eric Matza, who also worked at Yahoo as manager of targeting infrastructure initiatives for display advertising and email marketing, will be responsible for bringing new advertising technology and data products developed by Rubicon Project to market.

The Rubicon Project launched its ‘network of ad networks’ in 2007, and envisions ‘automating the $65 billion global online advertising industry’. The company has raised $42 million in funding the likes of Clearstone Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, IDG Ventures and GE/NBC Universal’s Peacock Equity Fund. Among its clients are big names like NBC Universal, Gannett and CareerBuilder, and the company claims to optimize more than 45 billion ads each month, reaching 500 million unique Internet users.

The company recently outlined its strategy going forward, and apparently its proposition is attractive enough to be able to recruit some serious talent.

It is called the JS-Kit Advisor. And it will bring ratings and reviews from trusted sources such as Experian and JD Power to businesses and product listings across the Web. The first data partner to go live is Experian, which is known for its consumer credit scores. But Experian also keeps financial and other background-check information on 22 million local businesses across the country. For instance, Experian powers ContractorCheck.com, its own Website where consumers can buy $10 background-check reports on local general contractors. But now Experian is taking some of that same key information and giving it away for free in JS-Kit’s widget.

A local listings site could install the widget and then anytime someone looked up a contractor, the widget would pop up and show them if the contractor’s license is expired, how much they are bonded for, and whether they have any liens or judgments against them, as well as their credit and bankruptcy history. “In other words,” says Loux, “all of the information that a bank uses to judge you, the consumer—the consumer can now use to judge a business, prior to clicking through.”

A green check means the contractor can be trusted, a red X means keep looking. The widget does not give the full details of a report, but enough for a consumer to know whether to steer clear of a certain contractor. Loux explains the concept:

I want to make sure the guy is not a dirt bag. This will bring more data around the point of the transaction. If a guy has a green check mark, he can grab it and show it off. The guy with the red check will hide the fact that he is a dirt bag and try to do marketing and SEO stuff. Those who are winners will win more and those who are scumbags will die faster.

It’s good marketing for Experian, and maybe it will end up selling the more in-depth reports to banks or those contractors with a red X next to their name who want to see how it got there.

But isn’t all that marketing and “SEO stuff” how directories and local search engines make money, by selling ads to those guys? “Web publishers will start competing using the truth,” responds Loux, always the idealist. Yet business directory sites like MojoPages and Spoke are already working to integrate the background-check widgets into their listings. If bigger sites like Yelp or CitySearch ever followed suit, unscrupulous contractors would have nowhere left to hide.

You can try it here by clicking on each contractor’s name in the simplified listings at left. The top one has a green check, the bottom one has a red check. When the widget pops up, click on the different tabs for more information.

The idea behind this widget goes way beyond exposing Experian’s data, although that is pretty awesome in and of itself. The widget can have many tabs, each with a different source of data. Loux has also struck a deal with JD Power to provide product review summaries, and with FamilyWatchDog to incorporate its health records for restaurants, product-recall information, sex offender listings. He has hopes for convincing more companies to add their data for job listings and other categories.

At this point, Loux’s widget is disruptive only in its potential. But if he can get it adopted by both enough data and listings providers, he argues that it could start to impact everything from search to banner ads.

Everyone wanders around on the Web in a dog pattern. You start at Google, look around, and go back. And every time you go back to Google they go, “Ka-ching!” This is the promise of Web 2.0 that has not been delivered yet—these fine connections. It is a big threat to PageRank and the inefficiency of Internet advertising, because everything you want is at you fingertips.

PageRank will no doubt survive the onslaught of Khris Loux and his widgeteers. But he does raise a compelling point about the power of widgets to distribute information to people where they need it. And the idea of spreading information from trusted sources across the Web to counter the (mis)messaging of marketers and vocal users who might happen to be wrong is also something that more Websites should think about doing.