Speed Bump on Madison Avenue

Thanks to technologies like TiVo (NASDAQ:TIVO), many Americans are skipping through commercials faster than a Porsche 911 on the Autobahn. Seriously. I could feel the wind zipping through my hair as I blasted through the interruptions during last night's installment of the 2005 World Series of Poker on ESPN.

Sadly, the Madison Avenue types know this all too well. So they're going where we live: online. News.com reports that a new study from Jupiter Research says that digital ad sales will climb to $18.9 billion by 2010. That's more than double last year's total of $9.3 billion. Sigh.

But not all the news is bad, especially if you're an investor in Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) or Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO). Jupiter says that search engine marketing will lead the online advertising surge, growing by roughly 12% annually. Classifieds, too, are expected to grow rapidly, by 10% per year to $4.1 billion by 2010.

None of this should come as a surprise, since the sector started the year on a tear. News.com reports that a recent study from Interactive Advertising and PriceWaterhouseCoopers pegged first-quarter spending on online ads at $2.8 billion, a 26% increase over the same period a year ago. Surely that impressive growth helped inform Jupiter's rosy projections.

So it looks like we're going to have to endure a few more embedded links whilst we stroll the digital streets morning and night. I can't say I'm looking forward to that.

But the Foolish investor in me smiles, because incessant digital come-ons might harbor Rule Breaking characteristics. Ones inherent in companies like -- you guessed it -- Google and Yahoo!

So ... bring it on, Madison Avenue. I can take it. All the way to the bank.

Stay current. Check out this related Foolishness from the world of online advertising:

• Even Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is considering the ad biz.
• WebSideStory (NASDAQ:WSSI) has seen the benefits of the uptick.
• TV ads have been losing their grip for a while now.
• That's why I thought TiVo would channel Google.

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Fool contributor Tim Beyers admits he didn't skip over all the commercials during last night's broadcast. He's partial to the latest Milwaukee's Best pitches. Tim didn't own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story at the time of publication. You can find out what's in his portfolio by checking Tim's Fool profile, which is here. The Motley Fool has an ironclad disclosure policy.