The story of the day, of course, is AOL Time Warner is reporting a profit. When I first came across the announcement, my immediate reaction was to check my calendar to make sure it's not April 1. Well, it's true. They've stopped bleeding money (or finally figured out what accounting is all about).

Online search may the hot topic of the day, with Ask Jeeves throwing its hat in the ring and Overture closing on the FAST deal, but there's another, albeit less intriguing, field of online advertising that deserves some attention - online coupons. According to eMarketer Senior Analyst David Hallerman, who wrote an article on the subject this week, "online coupons allow marketers to maximize and analyze their efforts to the fullest."

We're still ages away from our cell phones ringing with special offers for cappuccinos as we walk past a Starbucks, but there may be something to this text messaging thing after all, if used correctly.

Here's something to ponder over the long weekend: 14% of e-retailers are unaware of online customer conversion rates and 43% can't cite shopping cart abandonment rates.

According to a new report from Pew Internet & American Life Project, there is far more fluidity in the Internet population than most analysts had previously imagined - about a quarter of Americans live lives that are quite distant from the Internet, having never been online. What's even more incomprehensible to us web addicts is that many Americans who do not use the Internet now were either users in the past and gave up the habit or they live in homes with Internet connections.

Before I say anything about online banking, I have to say that if I see one more news story about Monica Lewinsky hosting that silly reality show, I'll scream. Enough already! Monica's hosting it. Everyone knows her name and everyone remembers exactly why they know her name. The guys will wear masks. We're all familiar with the concept of reality shows. That's all there is to say, people, so stop giving it ink!

In the beginning of this year Paul DeBraccio and his online rep firm Interevco conducted a simple survey of nearly 600 of the industry top minds asking them about the Biggest Obstacle and the Biggest Red Herring to industry growth. The survey received a 12% response rate and although it's not it is not the usual "Landmark Study" that we report on every week, it yielded some interesting results about the industry.

The online senate is abuzz with the recent announcement from McDonald's SVP of U.S. marketing, Bill Lamar Jr., who recently said the company will be doing less TV and more digital media.

When it comes to broadband, the debate of whether consumers actually WANT to watch TV on the Web will continue to rage, but that's not stopping the growth of high-speed penetration.

I have mostly good news today. According to the IAB's latest release, Internet advertising revenue in the U.S. totaled $1.5 billion for the fourth quarter of 2002, increasing more than 2% from the third quarter, reflecting the first consecutive quarterly increase since the second quarter of 2000.