Infoserve Group

I found this article in the Times about the online dominance of Google particularly interesting, especially when it pitches it against the rules and regulations facing the TV and newspaper industries.

“Traditional media resent the widening imbalance between themselves and their digital rivals who have a free hand”, writes the reporter.

Compared to Google’s remarkably unregulated online presence, you can understand their frustrations. The article reports that Google’s total internet ad spending is set to overtake the TV sector in 2009 so it’s quite astonishing that competition law has not yet crept into our online lives.

Could some form of potential combination between Microsoft and Yahoo! created a significant competitor in the market and challenge Google’s supremacy? Has the recent Google and Yahoo! deal put a stop to that? With numerous commentaries on Google’s market share rising to an all time high however, the article is also right in saying that media buyers cannot afford to exclude Google from their online campaigns by relying on the smaller search engines.

Here at Infoserve, we are in the lucky position of having close relationships with both Google and Yahoo!, but if it’s one thing this article has proved, online advertising is rocketing. Advertisers’ investment in local internet advertising services are projected to grow from $8 billion in 2007 to nearly $20billion in 2011 so if you’re not on board already, now is definitely the time to take advantage of the online boom.