Back on December 2, 1999, in the inaugural edition of Just an Online Minute, I wrote, "Have a cigar - MediaPost has a new addition! Starting today, I'll dare visit your inbox for a minute each day - just one minute - to highlight online media."

Yesterday's minute about paid search certainly ruffled some feathers. My inbox is flooded with responses and aside from those people who didn't read closely enough to see that I wasn't in any way bashing paid search, most readers agree that the paid search hype should be closely monitored.

In light of all the new announcements in the paid search arena this week - Yahoo and Overture officially sealing the deal, AOL and Google expanding their partnership and MSN giving LookSmart the boot - it may be worth a minute to take a step back from the astronomical financials (Yahoo is shelling out about $1.9 billion for Overture, based on yesterday's stock prices) and look at paid search from a more philosophical perspective. Mainly, is paid search over-hyped?

The web world seems to be fairly predictable this week. First off, it's official. Overture Services, Inc. today announced that its stockholders have approved Yahoo's proposal to acquire Overture and the acquisition will be completed after the close of Nasdaq trading today.

Interland, Inc. released the results of its nationwide 2003 Holiday E-commerce Survey which revealed the integral role an online presence serves, with 78 percent of small businesses interviewed indicating their company benefits from having a Web site. Of those surveyed, 51 percent agreed with the statement that their Web site primarily provides company credibility.

We've long known that higher-income households are more likely to be avid Internet users and this week comScore provides more proof that online advertising may just be the best way to sell them your wares.

Just how much are consumers spending online? Billions. The third quarter of 2003 produced online retail sales of $12.43 billion, a 24% increase over the same period in 2002 when $10.02 billion was spent, according to shopping search and comparison site BizRate.com. For the first nine months of this year, online sales totaled $37.16 billion, up by 24% from last year's $29.90 billion for the same period.

Internet users are spending more time online but the higher-end DSL and cable connected population is spending less time there.

Not to put a Whitney Houston song in your head for the rest of the day, but this one is about children. More specifically, data on European children and their use of the Internet, which those of you with international clients might find useful.

I hate to start the week with a rant, but I simply can't resist. Gartner today released a Research Note titled "Marketers Can Differentiate Email From Spam," which says that spam will make up 60% of email traffic in less than a year, and if there's one thing that annoys me more than spam itself it's the insistence of research companies to tell us, over and over, that spam is a problem.