US Online Advertising Grows by 27% in 2007

Online advertising in the US grew 27 percent last year, according to an IDC analyst. Internet ad spending totaled $7.3 billion for the fourth-quarter of 2007, about 28 percent more than the same period in 2006, according to IDC. For the 2007 calendar year, it reached $25.5 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 27 percent.

However, there was less positive news for Google as for the first time ever, IDC's research found Google actually lost market share. "Their domestic sales growth has slowed down," the analyst said. Google's net U.S. market share was down 0.5 percentage points to 23.7 last quarter compared to the prior quarter.