• by Masha Geller , November 21, 2001

As we get ready for the long holiday weekend, it's customary to think about the recent past and figure out what we're all thankful for. But for the online advertising industry the last year was a tough one and some of us may have difficulty finding something uplifting to remember.

And the hits seem to keep on coming - just this morning, Coolsavings got delisted from Nasdaq and DoubleClick got slammed with a lawsuit.

But just to put things in perspective, remember that the online advertising industry is only about 5 years old, and the amount of progress we've made in these years is truly amazing from any point of view.

Having started from scratch, in five short years we've gotten to a point where we're close to standing on equal ground with media that have been around for decades.

Sure, as an industry we've made mistakes, we've wasted many ad dollars without thinking of ROI, we've foolishly thought that click throughs were important, and we've believed bogus research data when it made us feel better.

But all those mistakes have taught us something and we are better for it. And that's why the online advertising industry as a whole didn't go the way of the dot-coms. We're still here and we're all looking forward to a brighter future.

So whom do we thank? The answer is easy. Ourselves and the people we work with - the people who have made all of it happen and the people who, despite news of layoffs, stock delistings and lawsuits still get up to go to work every morning to do their part in ensuring that bright future.

That's something worthy of many thanks. So here's wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving! Have a wonderful holiday and I'll look forward to seeing you back here on Monday so we can achieve more things that we'll be thankful for next year.