As we get ready for the long holiday weekend, it's customary to think about the recent past and figure out what we're all thankful for. But for the online advertising industry the last year was a tough one and some of us may have difficulty finding something uplifting to remember. And the hits seem to keep on coming - just this morning, Coolsavings got delisted from Nasdaq and DoubleClick got slammed with a lawsuit. But just to put things in perspective, remember that the online advertising industry is only about 5 years old, and the amount …

No matter how much we wish otherwise, the relationship between online and offline advertising remains very unbalanced. Generally speaking, advertisers think about their offline presence first, and online much later, if at all. Considering the fact that the web is still a very young and largely unexplored ad medium, it’s almost natural that many advertisers ignore it and latch on to reports of the web’s inadequacy as excuses for not trying. And to this day, barely a week goes by when someone somewhere doesn't say that the web is a waste of ad dollars. Those who have seen …

Two reports out today may give you a hint of what to expect this holiday season. The first is from Forrester Research, Inc. and Greenfield Online, which today announced the results of the latest Forrester Online Retail Index. According to the 22nd survey in this monthly series, total US spending on online sales decreased from $4.0 billion in September to $3.6 billion in October. The number of households shopping online decreased to 13.7 million in October, from 15.2 million in September. Consumers spent an average of $265 per person in October, compared with $262 in September. "Great deals …

Maybe it's because it's Friday afternoon. Maybe it's because it's almost dark outside at it's not even 5 p.m. Maybe I'm just cranky and easily bored today, but Yahoo's "innovative online advertising" push has lost my vote of enthusiasm. I logged onto their homepage to see if the Pizza Hut ad we wrote about last week was still there, but instead of a flying pizza I got a flying lemon. Literally. An animated yellow lemon bobbed across the screen, splashed into the Marketplace section on the right and turned an ordinary Pepsi logo into a Pepsi Twist …

How does an average web user feel about pop-ups, pop-unders and online advertising in general? Researchers at New York's Dynamic Logic took it upon themselves to figure out the answer. A few days ago they released the results of an Advertising Reaction Study, which concluded that banners generate the most favorable opinions; that consumers feel advertising is necessary to keep sites free even if the ads are distracting; that pop-ups are on par with TV ads and Direct Mail in their desirability; and that consumers will accept a limited number of pop-ups to access preferred and free online …

If you've been thinking about advertising on Instant Messengers (IMs), here are some numbers to keep in mind. Jupiter Media Metrix today reports that the adoption rate of IM continues to outpace that of the Internet in the U.S. From September 2000 to September 2001, the total time spent at work using the top three IM applications - AOL, MSN and Yahoo! - increased 110% from 2.3 billion to 4.9 billion minutes. The number of unique users of IM applications at work increased 34% to 13.4 million. Meanwhile, the total time spent with IM at home increased 48%, …

Two reports out today show that advertisers have to pay more attention to women. One report - The US Market for Solo Female Consumers, a new study released by MarketResearch.com - shows that aggregate income of single women is up an estimated 17% from 1997 levels. MarketResearch says marketers have only scratched the surface of this explosive market that now claims an aggregate income of $166.1 billion, and with more and more attention focusing on this untapped sales source, information on how single women are spending their money and what messages they respond to is crucial. …

Ok, maybe all's not well at DoubleClick after all. As you know, the first sign of trouble came in the middle of October, when the company cut "administrative staff" from its media division. Interestingly enough, when I called DoubleClick for comment that October day, the company PR department told me that Barry Saltzman, the head of the division, was in... Paris! But, spokespeople denied all rumors that DoubleClick was getting ready to get out of the media business. Within two weeks, DoubleClick was picked by one of the biggest automotive sites on the web - AutoTrader.com - to provide …

Not that it should surprise anyone, but Nielsen//NetRatings reports that surfers at-home flocked to the official website of the Harry Potter movie, set to première next Friday. During the six weeks ending November 4, traffic to the Harry Potter site skyrocketed 239% to 573,000 unique visitors, as compared to 169,000 surfers for the week ending September 23. Traffic to the site continued to grow this past week, jumping 47% from 390,000 visitors the previous week ending October 28. "The 'Harry Potter' book series has translated very favorably online, with television and in-theatre promotions fueling traffic to …

These days it seems like every research firm is coming up with numbers that aim to quantify the subdued mood of the nation. And every time I see one of these research studies, it seems like the numbers are there to remind marketers and advertisers that their audiences are made up of human beings who love their friends and families, not just of targets with eyeballs in various demo groups. At first all these releases seemed like shameless attempts at publicity. But after surfing the web as a consumer last night I see that some advertisers really do need …