1. Highest Q1 Revenue Level ever for the Online Market:
Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. hit $5.9 billion for the first quarter of 2010, representing a 7.5% increase over the same period in 2009, according to the numbers released this week by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). This marks the highest first-quarter revenue level ever for the industry.

Source: Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)

2. Facebook now leading Publisher of Display Ads
For the first time Facebook sells more display ads than any other web publisher and is catching up to rivals Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in selling display ads, The Wall Street Journal’s Jessica Vascellaro reports. According to comScore, Facebook served up 176.3 billion ads to U.S. customers in Q1, accounting for 16.2% of the total market. Yahoo and Microsoft served 131.6 billion and 60.2 ads respectively. It’s important to note that these stats reflect Facebook’s dominance as a publisher only – not by revenue or profits; Yahoo and Microsoft serve ads on other sites through their ad networks. In fact, Microsoft serves up most of the ads that appear on Facebook.

According to the Wall Street Journal, ‘Facebook’s rise could help fuel an already rebounding online-advertising market, which shrank during the recession. Display ads have recently shown strong growth as budgets have returned and technology companies have developed new ways to measure the effectiveness of graphical ads.’