“Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper. ”
—Thomas Jefferson

eMarketer reports that online advertising revenues for the first half of 2005 increased 26% over the first six months of 2004 to $5.8 billion. Solid growth, of course, but not particularly surprising.

It’s interesting to note that for the major tactics cited, the percentage of total revenues has remained flat from 2004 to 2005: search is number one, of course, commanding 40% of the pie. In the number two spot: display ads, with 20% in both years. Classifieds comes in third, with a small rise from 17% to 18%, while rich media hangs tough in fourth place at 8% both years. (I’d have expected rich media to make something of a move on the pack, what with the increased penetration of broadband and the general “gee, whiz!” factor that tends to wow the VPs approving the budgets.)

Also interesting: The CPM pricing model took a slightly larger slice of the pie in 2005: 48% vs. 45% a year ago. Pay-for-performance deals increased, too, from 38% to 40%. A drop in CPM/performance hybrids from 17% to 12% made up the difference.

Takeaway for marketers: Search works. Duh. Just make sure that as that traffic is driven to your site, potential customers have a clear understanding of what to do next.

Yesterday was Google’s seventh birthday. Among the ways they marked the occasion: They eliminated the bit of text that tells how many web pages they index. As of yesterday, it was more than 8 billion.

It was kind of fun watching that number change from time to time, sorta like watching the number on the old school McDonald’s signs change (500 million served!). But as Marissa Mayer, Google’s director of consumer products, told BizReport, “We think the absolute numbers have become meaningless, so we are encouraging users to find out for themselves.”

Search Engine Watch has an article about all this, explaining why in the scheme of things it’s a good idea.

Say what you want about Cindy Sheehan. Pretty much everybody has. But come on: Even people who think Sean Hannity is too liberal have to agree that Drudge was way out of line yesterday with his sophomoronic headline (screen shot above) that linked to this story.

“Cunning stunt”? Stop it. Just stop it, already.

If you like The Matrix and the opening of The Howard Stern Show on E!, then you’ll love the Flash work on the new Ikea site. Very cool.