Most marketers - 71 percent - think Google search ads are effective, compared with 62 percent saying so about Yahoo and 49 percent about MSN, reports MediaPost, citing a survey by Outsell. Advertisers who thought Google performed best were the ones with the smallest marketing budgets: Those who said Google ads were "extremely" effective had total budgets averaging $3.7 million, whereas the budgets of those saying Yahoo and MSN were extremely effective averaged $4.6 million. Outsell also predicted that spending on online marketing would grow 19 percent this year, with search increasing 26 percent.

Overall information industry revenues rose 7.7 percent to an estimated $285 billion in 2005, with Google and Yahoo together accounting for some 5 percent, according to the Outsell report.

Google became the fifth-largest information industry company - up from 18th. It trails leaders Reed Elsevier, Thomson Corporation, Time Warner, and Gannett. Yahoo became number eight, up from number 18 in 2004