eMarketer reports that Internet advertising revenues for 2005 are estimated to exceed $12.5 billion, a new record, and a 30% annual increase over 2004.

Takeaway for marketers: If this comes as any surprise, you’re not paying attention.

“You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing.”
—Alan Alda

Reuters reports that Google has agreed to pay up to $90 million to settle a class action lawsuit over click fraud.

I like the Monk-e-mail over at CareerBuilder.com — powered by the folks over at Oddcast, it’s fun and engaging, and you can even add your own voice to an animation that almost sorta synchronizes with your words at least as well as a badly dubbed 1950s monster movie. Good stuff.

Legislation proposed in New Jersey would compel operators of online forums to require anyone who wants to post to that forum to provide a legal name and address before being able to do so.

Of course, nobody supports anonymous character assassination and cyberbullying. Still, this just feels wrong. Does Big Brother really need to moderate the discussion over at the political corner of Backstreets.com?

Anyone who’s participated in an online forum for more than seven minutes knows how absurd it is to try and hold forums to the same “don’t you dare offend” standard as, say, your typical corporate no-harrassment policy. I can smell the asinine lawsuits in the air already.

Forum operators who fail to require and maintain personally identifiable information can be sued and held liable for compensatory and punitive damages, plus significant additional costs.

In possibly related news: The New York Times reported last week that they receive more than 1,000 requests monthly for information in civil and criminal cases.