In the research paper, “ The State of Search Engine Marketing 2004,” the findings regarding the growth of commercial activity on the Internet sent shock waves through the business world. Although these figures related only to advertisers in the United States and Canada, in 2004 these two countries invested $4.087 billion dollars in search marketing programs.
The major players had yet to accept this new reality, but the e-commerce figures could not be denied. Internet e-commerce could no longer be considered a vehicle only of use to entrepreneurs and small companies. From 2005 to 2008, the landscape of Internet search engines became more populated with large, well established brands such as Tiffany & Company, Harley Davidson, General Motors, Wal-Mart and the New York Times Corporation.
1 Statistics provided by http://www.internetworldstats.com