• Reuters, Friday, December 2, 2005 11:45 AM

Online advertising is no longer the forgotten stepchild in marketers' advertising plans and finally came of age in 2005, according to Google's North American sales boss. At the Reuters Media and Advertising Summit this week, Google's Tim Armstrong said this year marked a milestone, with corporate marketers making Internet advertising a standard part of their media budgets. "There is robust interest in online advertising and that interest is now turning into real dollars," Armstrong said, adding that analysts are predicting a banner 2005 year, with forecasts ranging from $10 billion to $15 billion. "The experimenting and testing phase begun in the 1990s has ended. Corporate ad buyers are investing now," he said. Jupiter Research estimates the U.S. online advertising market will grow 28 percent over last year, to $11.9 billion in 2005, jumping to $13.6 billion in 2006 and $15.1 billion in 2007.

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