Emarketer predicts that online advertising spending will reach $25.9 billion in 2008, up 23% from $21.1 billion in 2007. But what about online advertising revenue? IAB says online ad revenue was $5.9 billion in the 3rd quarter of 2008 – up 11.4%

It’s tough to compare the two figures without diving into metrics, but it doesn’t look rosy. Or, that the tough economy is hitting online too. What is clear is that revenues are going down and spending has slowed over the year.

Online advertising includes display advertising (banner ads, video ads, etc) and text-based advertising on search engines.

Anecdotal evidence I’ve heard and seen shows that businesses are still increasing their online budgets and moving print spend into more trackable online spend. This is based on what I have seen working at an SEO and PPC company where I work (OrangeSoda) and what I’ve heard from others in the industry.

I know you’re eager to see the winners of this week’s book contest. The winners are…

…below today’s Picks!

• Should Mozilla be concerned that 91% of its revenue came from its partnership with Google? The same Google that has launched a competing web browser.
• Video search company Blinkx has made a second (less attractive) bid for the ad network Miva.
• Search Engine Roundtable questions the ethics of Yelp.com. Does the site manually change positive and negative reviews?
• It seems Yahoo is bringing its "Glue Pages" to the US after all.
• SEMPO would like your input for the 2008 State of the Market survey–they have prizes for those that participate!

Since PC Magazine is for the tech crowd the announcement that the publication (can’t call it a magazine anymore I guess) would cease printing a hard copy and be a strictly online operation isn’t a surprise. The New York Times covers this change in the flagship of Ziff Davis Publishing while the company reports that the magazine would be profitable in 2008 but it is forecast to lose money in 2009.

Magazines as a whole are facing increasing competition from their online foes which are eating into advertising revenue. Coupled with a general economic malaise that is getting a tighter grip on the world economy and the increase in the raw material costs to print a magazine it was a bit of a no-brainer to shut down the print version. Right now the online version of the magazine generates 70% of the revenue and 80% of the profit of PC Mag.

Today is the last day of the year with all odd digits: 11-19 (or 19-11 if you’re so inclined). Thought you’d like to know.

• Facebook has found a way to turn its platform into profits by rolling out a Verified App program—$375 per application application. App application…. Ahem. Per year.
• Now that we’ve got that out of the way, on to the rest of the Googly news. Still looking for its nonsearch monetization sweet spot, Google is adding ads across its web properties including image search and news.
• Tired of the way Gmail looks? Good news: Gmail is getting themes. Soon.