• Bloomberg News, Wednesday, August 13, 2008 11:16 AM

EMarketer is lowering its forecast for U.S. Internet spending growth "by a few percentage points" analyst David Hallerman tells Bloomberg News, adding that his estimate for 2009 is "also probably too high." The Web researcher had predicted growth of 23%, or $26 billion in total sales, for 2008 and 16% growth for 2009.

Meanwhile, signs elsewhere also indicate that the online ad market is softening. Last month, Google CEO Eric Schmidt admitted for the first time that the Web leader is facing a tougher economic environment. That said, Google's search ads are faring much better than the display market, which is the primary domain of Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL. ''Advertising is the canary in the coal mine in a weaker economy,'' Hallerman said. ''All the bears aren't out of the woods yet when it comes to the economy.''

This will be the second time eMarketer has lowered its online ad forecast for this year. The first revision came in March, when Hallerman cut his forecast from $27.5 billion to $25.9 billion. The next one is forthcoming.

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