Online advertising revenues appear to be balancing out.
US Online ad revenue was reported to reach $5.5 billion according to estimates presented by The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) in tandem with PricewaterhouseCoopers in their third-quarter figures, up 1.7 percent from the second quarter of 2009, but still down 5.4 percent from the same quarter a year ago. The four biggest web advertising companies (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL) increased 1.2 percent in their fourth quarter revenues, with Google accounted for all that growth.
Nevertheless, as you can tell from the chart, IAB estimates have been consistently growing year over year since 2000, with a notable exception in 2009, due to the global economic recession in the country. On a global basis, search advertising is leading to recovery, and with fourth-quarter results soaring high due to increased holiday spending period, we are looking forward to see higher statistics soon.