• by February 15, 2001

While Internet companies are in turmoil and layoffs abound, overall online advertising grew 5% from December to January. At least that's according to the most recent AdZone Interactive research report.

AdZone tracks advertising on 1,700 U.S. websites, which make up more than 95% of all Internet ad revenue, and has been criticized in the past for being too bullish in their predictions. For example, they say December 2000 came in at $1.785 billion in estimated revenue and January 2001 totaled $1.867 billion - both figures seem astronomical even when compared to the IAB numbers, which are largely designed to boost industry morale.

Nevertheless, the 5% increase is worth mentioning if only to make us all feel a little better about our jobs.

"Overall web spending is on the rise and we have seen a shift in the types of companies that are using the web as their marketing vehicle," the report claims. John Cardona, AdZone president, said "advertising executives are spending more time with online research to analyze the competition and insure maximum exposure for their clients."

Predictably, JOBSONLINE.COM made the top ten AdZone list with estimated online spending of $13 million. As more dot-coms lay off and down size staffing requirements, the online job sites are reaping the rewards, the report said.

AOL.COM was the number one advertised brand. January's estimated expenditures were valued at $26.3 million, ESPN.GO.COM.CONTEST spent an estimated $26.3 million and NEXTCARD.COM spending was valued at $19.2 million to rank second and third.

AOL.com, Yahoo.com and ESPN.GO.com ranked as the top three sites by revenue. They took in an estimated $92.6, $54.5 and $39.8 million respectively.