An Adage report says that the $8 billion figure is significant because it represents the peak level of online ad spending in 2000, just before that era's superheated Internet economy imploded.

The eMarketer report has considered the fact that US auto marketers announced an expansion of their own spending on Internet advertising for the seventh year in a row. Giants like McDonald's Corp. indicated plans to shift more of their budget away from traditional media toward online media, which has become a favoured communications venue of younger consumers - says the report.

The Adage report quoted eMarketer's CEO Geoff Ramsey, as pointing out that search engine-based advertising and broadband connectivity are among the top trends driving the new growth in online advertising.

Many observers view eMarketer's findings as particularly meaningful because the results are so broadly based. The company doesn't conduct its own narrow market studies but rather surveys and aggregates the findings of hundreds of other research organisations.