Due to economy downturn, as bad as it hit the Q3, the online ads growth also shows a deceleration. Techcrunch has a clear report of it.
In 2007 the online ad growth showed a sequential 12.7 percent in the fourth quarter. But starting in 2008, the 1st quater only had a 2.8 percent and followed by a mere 1.1 percent in the second quarter. The report is based on the big four, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL. During the 4th quarter, the increase in combined ad revenues for the big four only by $50 million to $8.2 billion.
Here are the charts showing the ads revenue for the big 4. Although the growth is not as good as last year, at least it still sees a growth in each quarter. Q3 2008 only had a mere 0.61 % increase, total ads revenues of the big 4 only shows $50 million increase from Q2 to Q3.
source [techcrunch]