WebProNews

Socks get lost all the time, and it's easy enough to misplace a pen.  But people perk up when a billion dollars disappears, and eMarketer has lowered its prediction concerning U.S. online advertising spending by that amount.

The good news: it's not time to panic.  Although $1 billion is a lot of money in an objective sense, it's less than four percent of the $25.9 billion eMarketer used to think would change hands in 2008.  As for the remaining $24.9 billion, eMarketer pointed out that it represents an increase of 17.4 percent over the amount spent last year.

 Revised eMarketer Estimates
(Graph Credit: eMarketer.com)

David Hallerman, a senior analyst, went on to state, "Even as the potent mix of a misfiring economy and consumers' changing media habits shave advertising dollars from traditional venues, such as newspapers and television, Internet ad spending will continue to grow rapidly."

Only look for some weaker companies in online circles - perhaps Yahoo and/or Microsoft - to be affected much by the slower pace.  Corporations in other markets - such as the newspaper industry - will be the ones really getting hurt as advertising priorities shift.

U.S. online ad spending is on track to increase another 14.5 percent in 2009 and 17.5 percent in 2010, according to eMarketer.