WSJ writes about the growing importance of search engines in advertising:
More and more companies doing business online find that the best way to reach prospective customers is through their Web searches.
After all, most consumers looking to make a purchase online start with a keyword search. So why splatter ads all over the Internet — and risk having most of the people they reach treat them as nothing more than an annoyance — when you can focus on people who show an interest in what you’re selling and who are getting ready to buy.
Spending on paid listings and paid inclusion — two of the three forms of search-related marketing — more than doubled in the U.S. from $419 million in 2001 to $1.19 billion last year, and is expected to grow 48% this year to $1.77 billion, according to brokerage firm U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray. Globally, such spending is expected to grow fivefold to about $7 billion a year by 2007 from $1.4 billion last year, says Safa Rashtchy, an analyst at the Minneapolis-based firm. Outside the U.S., he expects tenfold growth to $2 billion in 2007 from about $200 million this year.
The article discusses the three forms of search-based marketing that companies do: paid listings, paid inclusion and search-engine optimisation.
An article on SiliconValley.com discusses Overture and the challenges it faces.
Search+T
