• by September 22, 2004

In case you needed more intelligence on just how improved the online ad revenue picture is, you ought to have collected it this week. The Interactive Advertising Bureau on Monday (IAB) reported that online ad revenue for the second quarter of 2004 rose 43 percent versus the same period a year ago. The IAB's revenue report is done in conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The second quarter's rise helps account for the first half of this year's haul of $4.6 billion, up 40 percent from a year ago. If these trends bear out, the online advertising industry is on track to achieve some $9 billion in revenue by year-end 2004.

Can you believe it?

I guess that's why so many people attended the IAW Conference and Expo on Monday and Tuesday. The revenue numbers are particularly striking given that during the Web's heady hey-days, quarterly revenue spiked at $2.12 billion in the fourth quarter of 2000. Revenues began plummeting shortly thereafter to $1.45 billion by the third quarter of 2002.

While search-related advertising accounts for 40 percent of the online ad revenue picture, its growth was flat compared to the fourth quarter of 2003.

Today we'll see how online media and digital technologies such as TiVo are affecting the rest of the media mix during Forecast 2005, MediaPost's annual one-day conference.