Thank the gods for Firefox+Adblock, because spending on web advertising in the U.S. hit a new high in the 3rd quarter of 2007, pushing the total for the first 9 months of this year to $15.2 billion, up more than 3 billion from the same period in 2006. Says an exec at Interactive Advertising Bureau, which helped prepare the report, “Marketers large and small have come to accept digital media as the fulcrum of any marketing strategy.”

The boom in online advertising has driven media and technology companies to build up their online advertising businesses, partly through acquisitions.

Among recent deals, Google Inc agreed to pay $3.1 billion for ad serving and tracking company DoubleClick, while Microsoft Corp bought online marketer aQuantive Inc for $6 billion.

“Web spending hits new record in third quarter” [Reuters]
(Image: Getty)

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