It’s somewhat of a slow news day, at least when it comes to the search engines - they’re all in NYC for Search Engine Strategies. While we may hear some announcements later in the week, here are three Google items worth a quick look. Techdirt is spot on with their attack on the publishing industry’s claims that Google “stealing” their content. If publishers are so worried about this, go ahead and ban Google’s

While the average spent on online advertising in the U.S. hovers around 5% of total ad budgets, the U.K. is blazing a trail with 11.4%.
Online advertising grew by more than 41% in 2006, overtaking national newspaper ads (10.7% share) and about half the amount spent on TV ads (which actually dropped 4.7%).
It’s good news for online marketers…
“The internet is a hugely popular mass medium now, and advertisers are continuing to swi

Did you enjoy the spring weather this weekend? If you were outside for most of the weekend, you likely missed the debate on the future of print news, started by a rumor from Tim O’Reilly.
I’m hearing rumors that the San Francisco Chronicle is in big trouble. Apparently, Phil Bronstein, the editor-in-chief, told staff in a recent “emergency meeting” that the news business “is broken, and no one knows how to fix it.

It’s true: newspapers are outperforming TV in video ads. In 2006, newspapers’ websites sold $81 million in local online streaming video advertisements. Local TV broadcasters’ websites sold only $32 million. Even taken with the other $48 million spent on online video advertising, it’s not much compared to the advertising industry total of $280 billion