Advertisers press IAB for move on search standards: having announced it'll look into the matter, the IAB is under growing pressure to set standards for search marketing

New Media Age, August, 2003 by Chris Dillabough

The IAB's decision in June to announce it was ready and willing to tackle the tricky issue of standards in search marketing was brave, but necessary, move. Now it's August and elements in the industry are already demanding to know how when it's going to produce results (NMA 21 August).

Before the rise of pay-per-click (PPC) search marketing, pioneered by Espotting in Europe and Overture in the US, the business of getting your site listed on search engines was a dark art. Espotting and Overture changed that, offering a complex but relatively transparent and controllable means of driving search traffic.

The IAB says paid-for listings now account for 30% of all online ad spend in the UK around 60m [pounds sterling] in 2002. Arguably, PPC has lifted online...