Fee, fie, foe, fum.... Here they come!

Certain industry pundits have written recently on the "de-portalization of the Internet" and the "death of the portal." But a quick look at the numbers show that their premonitions are premature.

eMarketer estimates that net US ad revenues at Yahoo! , AOL, MSN and Google represented 57.4% of the total Internet ad spend in 2006.

And the portal slice of the ad spending pie is growing, not diminishing. This year, ad spending at the four major portal sites will account for fully two-thirds of total online ad revenues.

"As traditional marketers move more money online, they look for safety in established, mass-market brands, and portals are that," says David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst and the author of the new Portal Marketing: The Big Four report. "Other than Google, the large portals are at least 10 years old, and all four average 100 million or more unique visitors monthly."

According to eMarketer estimates, the top portals will all increase US net ad revenues in 2007, with nearly $13 billion going to just those four sites. And the revenue rankings will remain the same as in 2006.

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