Yahoo's display ad business is showing signs of the life. For the first quarter of the year, it was up 10 percent, to $471 million

Facebook now aims to grab a bigger slice of brand-advertising budgets by developing an array of innovative ad options - and by blunting criticism that the site's small ad boxes afford little room for creative executions.

This month, two of the industry's leading experts on online media - eMarketer chief Geoff Ramsey and McCann WorldGroup global director of marketing performance Vipin Mayar - publish Digital Impact: The Two Secrets to Online Marketing Success. The following excerpt zeroes in on the book's discussion of online display advertising trends and issues.

So, let me tell you about this up-and-coming digital shop in Brooklyn. Yeah, I know, it sounds like a cliché, and you're probably thinking, "Right, I've heard this story before," but I promise you, though it may start off the same way, it doesn't end the way you think.

#1 FACEBOOK What can we say that nearly 600 million users haven't already written on your walls: "We like you, we really like you." Actually, there's a new status update on that. While Facebook remains the undisputed champion of the online publishing universe, it actually experienced the first significant churn in its user base this year, and the digintelligentsia are already betting that it's on the wane. Tell that to the marketers and agencies that are expected to invest upwards of $3 billion in display ads on the social network, which will make it the top display-advertising dog in the …

If Snooki's official Twitter account looked a little more fresh-faced recently, it's because the "Jersey Shore" star changed her image to one of a pre-tanning bed, pre-poufy high-schooler named Nicole Polizzi: "OMG I found my #PROM pic! LMAO!! Check it out and plz send me yours!!! Who R U going w/April 29? #PROMoted."

It once took a village to raise a child. Now, it takes an Internet connection, a Facebook or Twitter account, and maybe a blog or two. According to Stacy DeBroff, CEO and founder of "one-stop" Web resource momcentral.com, 21st-century mothers are looking outside their local neighborhoods for parenting advice. "We no longer grow up with moms and aunts and best friends next door," DeBroff says. "The online space for moms has proved a really core source for socializing with and finding people who identify with particular issues that you wrestle with."

Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, who recently returned to the five-year-old company in the role of executive chairman, has made it his mission to make Twitter more social - and he's got his work cut out for him.

Gregor, the Russian billionaire who flaunts his ludicrously lavish lifestyle in the DirecTV commercials "Opulence, I Has It" and "I Am Epic Win," is quite a character. But his petite lap giraffe - seen perched next to the oligarch on a couch in one spot and walking on a tiny treadmill in another - is a true scene-stealer.

Taking the helm at TheStreet during the height of the recession in 2009, CEO Daryl Otte is used to the precariousness of online publishing. Good thing, given the company lost $5.7 million from a revenue of $57 million last year. Hopeful about the future, Otte points to investments made in the business, an improving economy and ad market, along with The New York Times' recent return to subscriptions as validation for TheStreet's mixed monetization model. Otte graciously took some time to elaborate on his optimism and why their model is right for our times.