• The Wall Street Journal, Friday, September 19, 2008 11:15 AM

"Display ads have fallen on hard times," according to The Wall Street Journal, and given this week's meltdown in the financial sector -- traditionally a big buyer of online display ads -- things may get worse before they get better for Web publishers. Even so, some major Web companies are trying to engineer a comeback for display ads, despite the dark economic times.

Microsoft, in particular, is making the pitch that display performs better for marketers than search in certain areas. Yahoo and Time Warner's AOL would agree (given Google's insurmountable lead in search, the largest online advertising category, they have to). In fact, Yahoo is set to release a new display advertising system next week, while AOL recently relaunched its ad platform, dubbed Platform A.

Is it true that display ads have been overlooked amid the euphoria over search? "Obviously, Microsoft has a motive to shift dollars from search to display advertising because it is getting creamed in the search space," says Ben Winkler, a director of interactive media at the Martin Agency, a unit of Interpublic Group. That's certainly true, but when considering which ads perform better, it also depends on what the consumer is looking for and when. New research suggests that by the time consumers search for a product or service, they've already made up their mind to buy it. Display ads are often an important part of reaching that conclusion.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »