Google Inc., owner of the most popular Internet search engine, said third-quarter profit climbed 26 percent as more customers used Web search ads to spur sales in a slowing economy, sending the shares higher….
Advertisers are shifting budgets away from TV and print media toward ads that run alongside search listings, targeting online shoppers. The Internet will account for 8.7 percent of the $284 billion in U.S. ad spending this year, up from 7.2 percent in 2007, according to Barclays Capital.
“This was exactly the kind of shot in the arm that investors need,” said Jeff Lindsay, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York. “People lost a lot of faith in the Internet, but this is exactly what the doctor ordered.”