Large share of US online ad spending still accounted for by paid search

Internet search is highly important to advertisers, despite the comparatively short amount of time internet users spend on it.

That is according to eMarketer, which said that the fact paid search accounted for 40 per cent of US online ad spending may appear "outlandish" to some.

Ongoing research by the Online Publishers Association and the Nielsen Company projected that in 2007 less than five per cent of US internet user time would be spent on search, compared with 50 per cent spent on content sites.

However, last year spend on paid search per hour of consumer internet usage far outweighed that of display advertising.

David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer, explained: "When search is effective, people find what they need and go away, and that greatly reduces the time spent on sites.

"But when content is effective, people want to stick around."