Online advertising's future is bright, in part because of new tools and targeted ads, said Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker during a keynote address at AD:TECH, adding that the Web is the most underutilized advertising medium, accounting for only three percent of total adspend in the U.S., CNET reports. "We've got 900 million global customers driving on the same highway," Meeker is quoted as saying. The only differences among those people, she said, are in their access speed, language and access device. At the conference, the buzz is about the multibillion-dollar search business dominated by Google and Yahoo. Confidence is also building for display advertising as the Web continues to lure major brand advertisers. Online ad sales are expected to reach $9 billion this year, up from roughly $8 billion in 2004.
