By now, you’ve seen the biggest news on the Internet so far this year:  Microsoft’s purchase of online portal and search engine giant Yahoo! for $44 billion dollars.  The news that the software colossus will marry with one of the oldest names in online searches shows the depth and strength of the industry.  And experts note that it shows the possibilities for the future of online advertising. 

"Forty-four billion dollars is a great testimonial to the great power of this marketplace," said Jarvis Coffin, chief executive of advertising distributor Burst Media Corp. "The market is saying, `I don't think we're in a bubble. We're in a period of intense growth that's going to continue to grow for more years.'"

Here at gibLink.com, we know our members are ready to grab their piece of the market for runaway success.  With the tools to build a personalized advertising portal for individual businesses, a fully customized set of profile pages for personal, business and social affiliations, customized postcards and other mailings as well as a spot in the gibLink rotating advertising system, hard work is always rewarded.  And members can get all the help they need.  They can learn more about how to utilize the tools through online trainings, webcasts, and as well as by getting advice from other members on message boards and in chatrooms.

It seems that online advertising revenues are going through the roof.  According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, online ad spending in the U.S. grew about 25 percent through the first three quarters of 2007, compared with the same period in the previous year. Growth is steady in terms of dollars, though the growth rate is slowing as the size of the pie gets larger.

And here’s something else we found interesting.  Did you know that 20 percent of  the average American’s media consumption is online, but only ten percent of advertising dollars are spent there?  That imbalance can only favor online advertisers who are poised to pick up the slack as the market figures out new realities in the age of the Internet.

And other segments are noticing. Microsoft's proposed deal to buy Yahoo "does underscore the value of internet audiences with large audiences," AOL CEO Jeffrey Bewkes said. "It does have a beneficial lift to our eyeballs and inventory.  And it just verifies the importance of moving to the kind of display and third-party-monetization platform that we've built."

You remember AOL?  As one of the original Internet Service Provicers, AOL is a company that had to react quickly to changes in the way it did business.  When the company lost market position as an ISP, it reinvented itself, shedding its subscription internet-access-based business model in favor of offering free, ad-supported service, which Time Warner is calling AOL's "audience business."  And since then, AOL has aggressively added ad network assets under the moniker Platform A -- to the tune of investing $900 million in 2007. Already in 2008, it has bought widget company Goowy and, earlier this week, a European-based affiliate-ad network, Buy.at, which will live in AOL's Ad.com division and soon be expanded to the U.S.

At AOL, revenue dropped almost 32% to $1.25 billion from $1.84 billion for the year-prior period, as it continued to lose subscription revenue.  But ad revenue was up 10% to $620 million.  And that is where the company sees its future.

At gibLink, we see the horizon as vast and limitless.  There is change ahead and we’re looking for ways to maximize the opportunities here at gibLink and elsewhere on the Internet.  Stick around and see how your business can grow with the gibLink.com online community.