You know it’s a slow day in the online ad business when every publication is giving prime placement to a story about the yodeler who’s suing Yahoo for $5 million.

The biggest story of the day comes from Jupiter Media Metrix, which earlier today reported that Internet usage more heavily affects the television viewing habits of women with children than women without children in the U.S.

A good indication of this economic recovery we’re rumored to be going through is the renewed consumer interest in travel. Nielsen//NetRatings today has proof that there’s hope for us all.

At the ARF Annual Convention last week, IRI and DoubleClick presented research that showed how online advertising can positively influence consumer perceptions of brands and increase offline sales by an average of 6.6% for major consumer packaged goods (CPG). At the same event, comScore Networks released the results of a similar study, which also confirmed that online marketing can increase purchase intent, brand awareness and advertising awareness among CPG consumers.

I never thought I’d see the day. As the IAR reported today, “more than half of the direct marketing firms doing business online are seeing positive returns on investment from their Web presence.”

Internet traffic shows that we still wait until the last minute to complete the dreaded task of filing our income tax returns.

A few months ago I reported that the Online Publishers Association (OPA) was getting ready to conduct two separate studies on the media consumption habits of U.S. consumers. The results of the first study were released in January and today, as promised, the second installment is in.

At the ARF Annual Convention today, Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) and DoubleClick announced the results of e-AdWorks: Internet Advertising Effectiveness Study, which examines the impact of Internet advertising on purchase behavior and consumer attitudes.

Overture Services, the people who brought Pay-For-Performance keyword buys to search engines almost everywhere, today partnered with computer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard for its own keyboard button (and some other stuff).

In the case of new product announcements and press releases, a catchy name or headline can mean the difference between “open” and “delete.” It can also deceive someone into getting excited over something that turns out to be rather insignificant.