Online ad spending reached a record high last year, driven largely by growth in keyword ads 
that appear in results from online searches.

Revenues totaled $9.6 billion last year, a 33 percent increase from $7.3 billion in 2003. 
Search-related ads accounted for 40 percent of the revenues last year, up from 35 percent the 
year before.

The previous record was set in 2000, when online ad spending reached $8.1 billion. Since then, 
the dot-com economy tanked, then rebounded. "Interactive advertising has clearly become a 
mainstream medium and one that can no longer be ignored as a critical piece of any marketing 
mix," said Greg Stuart, president and chief executive of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, 
which commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct the report.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2005/05/04/financial/f182137D83.DTL 
(05-04) 18:21 PDT NEW YORK, (AP) Wednesday, May 4, 20051