• Adweek , Tuesday, January 6, 2009 12:30 PM

How will online advertising fare in 2009? Adweek says there are two schools of thought: optimists see tighter budgets shifting more dollars from less measurable media like TV and print to the Web; pessimists believe that weaker ad budgets will result in cuts across all media, although digital should fare a little better.

With that in mind, search spending is expected to remain stable, while display and ads and microsites could come under pressure. Social ads are also likely to remain top of mind this year, as marketers look to move beyond experimenting with social media toward really engaging and leveraging users' social interactions.

Researcher eMarketer pegs online ad spending growth at 8.9% in 2009, from $23.6 billion to $25.7 billion. Forrester Research, another research firm, expects display spending to increase 8% this year.

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