Online Ad Revenue Makes Significant Gains

Online advertising saw record growth in the first half of 2008, showing that the industry was not bothered by a generally slow economy.   Overall revenue jumped 15.2 percent, and was lifted in particular by a 24 percent increase in search engine advertising and a 19 percent gain in banner advertising.

However, a report issued by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers shows that growth began to slow down somewhat in the second quarter.  Coupled with the current financial crisis, this has some observers concerned that these gains could be lost in the second half of 2008.