• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, September 9, 2008

According to the most recent comScore, Inc. ranking of the top online display ad publishers and advertisers, Fox Interactive Media, as the top display ad publisher got 15.9 percent of all display ads viewed, while Microsoft was the top display advertiser with 1.7 percent of total views. Experian gets the most unique visitors with 138 million.

And, Forrester projects that of the $8.2 billion, retailers will spend this year on online marketing, just over a third, $2.78 billion, will be spent on display advertising. Search engine marketing leads the way with $3.63 billion and e-mail marketing is third at $1.25 billion. Forrester projects retailer spending on online display ads will grow at an annual rate of 20% through 2012 when it will reach $4.99 billion.

Fox Interactive Media served 52.3 billion ad views, with MySpace.com accounting for 51 billion of these views. Yahoo! Sites reached 130 million unique individuals with its ads, reaching more people than any other publisher. AOL LLC ranked third, followed by Microsoft Sites, and Google.

Microsoft was the top display advertiser with 5.5 billion display ad views, due in large part to its promotional campaign for Windows Live Search, including ads for Windows Live Search Club games and the new Windows Live Search cashback program. The University of Phoenix, an online university, ranked second, followed by Experian which advertises for a variety of sites including LowerMyBills.com and FreeCreditReport.com.

For additional information, please visit comScore here