More than 36 percent of Web users "highly trust" the information they receive from friends and acquaintances in their online social networks, according to a new social internet survey by Faves.com (formerly BlueDot.us); that number jumps to 90 percent when including those that "moderately trust" their social network contacts, writes MarketingCharts.

In contrast, just 4 percent highly trust content/opinions from vendors or advertisers, 4 percent highly trust comments on blogs or forums, and 3 percent highly trust news communities such as Digg or Reddit.

The same survey found that 34 percent of respondents visit a social-networking site at least weekly.

"People trust their online social networks more than any other online resource," said Rob Dickerson, CEO of Faves.com.

"Also, today people are much more comfortable posting to the Web, whether it's expressing an opinion, uploading digital content, or adding a comment on a blog."

More than 70 percent said they sometimes or frequently rely on online product or book reviews, and another 62 percent rely on the popularity of information based on users' votes or ratings.

"Two years ago, only 13 percent of the people we surveyed visited a social-networking site weekly - today, that number is 34 percent. Two years ago only 9 percent visited a media sharing site, such as YouTube or Flickr, weekly - today, that number is 26 percent," Dickerson added.

MarketingCharts provides more findings from the study, comparing current internet use with that of two years ago.