Advertisers slashing budgets due to economic downturns.Bad news for mobile sites,

Mobile advertising answers questions about its future
November 7, 2008 — 11:01am ET | By Jason Ankeny
One third of marketers plan to slash their advertising budgets this year to account for the economic downturn, according to a recent survey conducted by the Association of National Advertisers, and three prominent industry forecasters--Barclays Capital, Myers Publishing and Wachovia--predict ad spending for traditional media outlets like TV, radio, magazines and newspapers will decline even further in 2009. While none of that bodes well for the immediate future of mobile advertising, there seems to be little doubt the mobile platform offers an increasingly viable promotional channel: Consumer research issued by mobile community provider Limbo and market analysis firm GfK Technology states mobile ad awareness increased 33 percent during the first nine months of 2008, compared to just six percent growth in overall mobile phone usage.


Google Finally Gets A "SELL" Rating!
Finally, we've reached the first real sign of a bottom in Google's stock price: A sell-side analyst now rates the stock "SELL." Most of the Street is still bullish, so we probably need a few more frustrated sorry-I-blew-you-up downgrades before we reach the bottom, but this is definitely encouraging. Merriman Curhan Ford analyst Richard Fetyko, via Barrons: "Click volume and search ad pricing are under pressure, and so we are initiating coverage with a Sell rating. Google is likely to be among the first to rally as the economy stabilizes; however, near term, we see downside to consensus estimates and believe that investors will get a better entry point in the next six months."