The numbers are in, and online advertising appears to be on pace for another record-breaking year, the Internet Advertising Bureau reports. Industry revenue for the first half of the year came in at $7.9 billion, a 36 percent increase from last year. At that rate, online advertising could hit $17 billion this year, since sales in the second half are typically stronger than the first. That's almost triple what the industry pulled in after bottoming out in 2002.

But that optimistic news just casts a gloomier light on Yahoo's recent announcement of softness in the online-media market. All along, people have been asking if Yahoo's problems are unique to that company or sign of a broader problem. The IAB report suggests that Yahoo may be alone in taking it on the chin; the Web giant depends more on display advertising than rival Google, and display ads dropped from 34 percent of the market in the first half of 2005 to 31 percent in the first half of 2006. Ouch. No wonder Yahoo is making employees take a week off. The Browser would need a vacation, too.