Given that people are shooting from more screens than ever these days, that type of constant exposure and content searching seems like it could only yield better and more opportunities for online advertisers to generate revenue, and it’s an opportunity they aren’t going to let pass them by. “More online consumers than ever are taking to the internet to inform and navigate their daily lives—by desktop, tablet or smartphone,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “Marketers and agencies are clearly–and wisely–investing dollars to reach digitally connected consumers.”

David Silverman, Partner, PwC U.S., concurs that the internet is becoming a highly lucrative market for advertisers.

“The year-over-year growth between Q1 2011 and Q1 2012 sets quite a milestone,” said he said. “Moreover, a 15% increase over the comparable period in 2011 is a solid affirmation the internet is delivering on its promise to attract consumers and the advertising dollars that follow.”

Earlier this year, eMarketer predicted that Facebook’s ad revenue would climb up to $5 billion although the company’s growth rate would probably stall out in subsequent years, during which time Google is expected to surpass Facebook and become the top seller of online ads.

In 2011, Facebook’s online display ad revenue was $1.73 billion and is expected to increase to $2.58 billion in 2012, then more to $3.29 billion in 2013. Google’s ad revenue was $1.71 billion in 2011, is expected to reach $2.54 billion in 2012, and then continue to increase to $3.68 billion in 2013. If eMarketer’s predictions are true, and the other top five ad-selling companies – Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL – continue to increase their ad revenue this year as well, record-breaking online ad revenue might become a repeated story throughout 2012.

Patch, AOL’s local news dispensary, served 11.7 million users in May, marking a 14% increase in users from April when the platform had 10.3 million users. Last month’s record is also an 11% increase over Patch’s previous traffic record, which was recorded in August 2011 with 10.6 million users. In month-to-month growth, Patch saw a 12% increase in visits per unique visitor in May.

“We are extremely gratified to see these measures of the traction we have gained in our communities and in our business since our launch just over 3 years ago,” commented Jon Brod, CEO & Co-Founder of Patch, said in a statement. “We are laser-focused on continuing to serve our users and advertisers with high-quality content and impactful products, and building upon our success to date in innovative and engaging ways.”

Patch’s revenue also hit a new high water mark in May, besting the previous record set in November of last year. The platform’s total revenue for May was 14% higher than the previous record and 17% higher than April’s revenue.

AOL Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong, who founded and later sold Patch to AOL after he’d joined AOL, expects that Patch will generate between $40 and $50 million in revenue this year, a projection likely based on the fact that Patch has already booked for 2012 130% of its total 2011 revenue.

While AOL didn’t release any actual money numbers associated with Patch’s good month o’ May, Patch might need to do a little better than $50 million to finally be considered a success. Bloomberg cites the aforementioned group of disgruntled investors, Starboard, who estimated that Patch lost $147 million last year with only $15,000 coming from each of Patch’s 800-plus news sites. While the prospective $50 million that Patch hopes to generate this year would offset another fiscal year loss, it remains to be seen if the hyper-local news service can inch closer to actually producing a profit in the future.

Nasdaq’s technical fumble delayed the IPO for about half an hour and left brokers wondering whether or not their trades had actually been confirmed. Some of those traders didn’t find out until hours later whether their purchases went through, which was well after it was starting to look like Facebook’s stock was stalling.

Today’s new low for Facebook shares, $25.75, likely only adds kindling to the fiery anger felt by brokers who were unexpectedly and unwittingly left holding Facebook shares that they likely wouldn’t have kept if they’d have known what the actual fate of their share purchases were.

Nasdaq OMX plans to use roughly $10.7 million that was gained from the organization’s “own unexpected position in Facebook shares” in addition to the standing $3 million cap on compensation reserved for exchange customers negatively affected by system outages. That may be about as far as Nasdaq cares to go in ameliorating the toxic situation investors find themselves in, though, because if the group doles out much more than that it could start to eat into their profits. That seems like shoddy, selfish math guaranteed to prolong the bitter taste in the mouths of investors should that $13 million not cover the losses suffered by investors.

And bitter they may continue to be, as the Journal points out that total losses suffered on behalf of retail investors lost more than $100 million due to the craptastic Facebook IPO. Nasdaq might want to start brokering some peace with investors tomorrow, but paying out only a tenth of what was lost because of Facebook’s IPO errors likely won’t appease too many investors.

Those technical problems hindering Facebook’s IPO seem to have left a lot of people holding onto significant financial losses and, according to the Wall Street Journal, many brokers and traders are calling for Nasdaq OMX Group, the company that owns the operates the Nasdaq, to recompense for those losses.

Nasdaq OMX has said it will use $10 million from the Facebook shares the exchange owns to make up for some of the losses endured by investors the past two trading days. But even that’s not expected to cover all of the fumbled trades because, according to Bob Griefeld, Nasdaq OMX’s chief executive, there simply aren’t enough shares available at the price sought by brokers.

None of this exactly restores confidence in Facebook shares or Nasdaq OMX’s reputation. Just ask George Brady. He bought 1,000 shares of Facebook soon after they became available but had his purchase stall out on his Charles Schwab account. Facebook shares had already started to dip and yet he was still standing out in the cold.

Then, six hours of silence followed. At around 6:14 p.m, Schwab told him that he had bought the shares at $40 and that he still held them, despite the cancellation request.

“I was stuck for six hours trying to figure out whether I owned this dog or not,” said Mr. Brady, who lost $2,775 when he sold his shares on Monday. He says he has been in touch with Schwab and has contacted the SEC.

As terrible as it is to lose almost $3,000 on what was heralded as a sure-bet by many speculators, Brady should probably be glad he sold off his shares on Monday and swallowed the loss that he had then because today doesn’t look much better. As of writing this, Facebook shares opened 7.41% down from yesterday and are slowly slipping down to the $30 mark.

As bad as that $3,000 loss is, it could be worse. Brady’s name could be Mark Zuckerberg and he could’ve lost $2 billion yesterday.

Suzanne Vranica, an advertising and marketing reporter at the Journal, tweeted the news:

According to the accompanying report, GM’s global marketing chief, Joel Ewanick, the same guy on Tuesday that said paid ads on Facebook don’t work (in so many words), has concluded that buying ads during the Super Bowl is too expensive to justify the cost.

Given that GM’s the third largest advertiser during Super Bowls, today’s decision helps defuse any of the controversy that got blown up after the company decided it would no longer pay for ads on Facebook (GM’s still dedicating $30 million to using Facebook’s free services).

All of this advertising reshuffling by GM is due to the company’s effort to optimize its advertising strategy and get the most out of its ad budget. And while this Facebook/GM story is starting to sound like it’s going to go out with a whimper, GM’s timing to announce its withdrawal from paid Facebook ads only a few days before Facebook’s IPO remains a little suspect.