The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the launch of the Impression Exchange Solution, a document that identifies the core requirements necessary to the automated exchange of impression data between publishers and third-party ad servers.

Such a foundation will enable publishers and agencies to detect and fix discrepancies close to real-time. It also nullifies the need to manually pull campaign reports from third-party ad servers.

The IAB positioned the offering as a tribute to its ongoing "War on Discrepancies." VP-Industry Services Jeremy Fain of the IAB went so far as to call it "a game-changer for the online industry."

EVP/US Director-Digital Communications David Cohen of Universal McCann appears to share this ambitious viewpoint. calling inefficiencies and discrepancies "two of the most vexing challenges" in the interactive ad industry, he urgently preached, "Now it becomes critical for publishers, agencies and third party ad servers to adopt these solutions as part of their business processes."

"Version 1.0 beta" of the Impression Exchange Solution focuses on one-way reporting from agencies' systems to the publisher — that is, it focuses largely on the commands that enable users to draw data from third-party ad firms in real-time.

Last week the IAB proclaimed its intention to refurbish interactive ad standards, seeking help for the first time among the executives of ad agencies.

Meanwhile, online ad revenue Stateside remains robust. 4Q08 revenues hit $6.1 billion — with revenue for 2008 in total topping $23 billion. Search in particular is driving growth.