Internet advertising hits a new high

More than £1bn was spent on UK Internet ads in 2005.

The UK's online advertising market soared in 2005, as advertisers abandoned traditional media in favour of the Internet.

Research published by the Advertising Association on Monday found that the online advertising market was worth £1.1bn in 2005, a 73 percent increase on the previous year. Online classified advertising was worth £748m, and online display advertising was worth £383m.

Overall ad spending in the UK rose just 2.1 percent in 2005, with advertising in print, radio and direct mail declined by 3 percent, 4.5 percent and 3.9 percent respectively.

Online is an attractive medium for advertisers because it can allow them to target their sales pitches within certain types of content, or even at certain kinds of people. It can also be measured very precisely, and companies can choose to only being charged when someone clicks on their advert.

It isn't without its problems, though. Earlier this month, Google paid $90m (£50m) to settle a lawsuit that claimed that its text advertising had fallen victim to fraud, with some advertisers paying for clicks that were not legitimate.