• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, November 2, 2010

OMMA Ad Nets got off to a perplexing note in New York this morning. Conference chair and programmer Steve Smith, noting that the first OMMA Ad Nets launched nearly two years to this day, reminded attendees that back then the conference predicted there would be in an inevitable shakeout in the burgeoning supply of ad networks. Back then, Smith noted that there were perhaps 350 or 400 ad nets. Today, by some estimates there are more than 650 - and still growing fast.

So clearly, these are not the dog days of the ad networks business, even though it may be cluttered, confusing and complicated. On the other hand, it may be the dog years.

That's what Greg Skipper, director of sales strategy at the granddaddy of ad networks - Advertising.com - suggested. Skipper, while making introductory remarks as the show's top sponsor, noted that he's been with the company for seven years, which officially makes him an industry "vet." No, not a dog doctor, but a veteran of the ad nets marketplace.

It just so happens that dog years equate to seven human years. But in the ad nets business, Skipper suggested, seven human years equates to 70 Internet years.