Back from Ad:Tech and done sifting through hundreds of emails from the last few days, I thought I'd quickly point out some of the important events that nearly got lost in the hustle and bustle of the conference.

Something happened at Ad:Tech yesterday that I've never seen happen before. An 8 a.m. Google breakfast forum was so popular with attendees, show organizers were turning people away. The presentation led up to Google unveiling a new self-service option for Google AdSense today, a program that enables website publishers to sign up online to serve Google AdWords ads on the content pages of their sites.

For someone who's been to every one of the last nine Ad:Tech conferences, the first day of the San Francisco show yesterday was certainly an interesting experience.

The Ad:Tech show kicked off a few hours ago in San Francisco and it looks like the online advertising community is here in full force. According to the preliminary stats, more than 2,200 people registered to attend the event, not including about 90 exhibitors and more than 140 speakers.

It's the calm before the storm in the online universe. The Ad:Tech show starts on Monday in San Francisco and promises to kick off with numerous announcements of online companies launching new products, unveiling new research and giving all of us in the industry new topics to debate for months to come. Before I fly off to the City by the Bay with my reporter hat and hip waders on to slosh through the new and interesting happenings of the Internet, I have good news for online auto automotive marketers.

Today, the online universe is abuzz withIAB's Q4 2002 results, but considering that we're two weeks away from Q3 2003, I thought I'd talk about something more timely.

Here's something to ponder. This morning brought the release of "Instant Messaging and Presence Market Trends, 2003-2007, a study showing that while only 26% of organizations to date have standardized on a common Corporate IM solution, as many as 70% are using some form of IM.

One of the things the online world is talking about today is the ABC/RealNetworks streaming video deal, so I thought I'd share some stats that put streaming in perspective.

The debate about AOL's possible demise is still raging in my inbox and an announcement from the company today is sure to add fuel to the fire.

With thousands of fans and nominees tuning in from more than 90 countries and 185 parties worldwide, The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences this week honored the world's best websites in the first Webby Awards announcement to take place completely online.