Gasta News; New Media Age Report

This week new media age reported that Google saw search impressions on its Content Network grow by over 300% year on year - an amazing statistic for something that doesn't seem to get many headlines (nma 29 January).
AdWords, naturally, is Google's piece de resistance, being far and away the most successful form of online advertising. But Content Network really isn't that far behind, if not necessarily in terms of revenue, and along with Google's display ambitions is starting to drive Google's core search business.
Efficient Frontier's UK Search Engine Performance Report Q4 2008 showed Adsense search ads generated by Google Content Network now accounting for 6.4% of all UK search impressions, up by 308% from 2.2% last year.
This is still a long way behind AdWords, at 81.8% of all impressions, but fast catching up Yahoo (8.4%) and well above Microsoft (3.4%), according to the report.
The catch-up isn't really surprising: Google's really pushed the Content Network hard this last year, rolling out new formats and better reporting.
In contrast, Yahoo last month announced the closure of Content Match, its text-based equivalent to Google's AdSense.
The company said it was because it saw the future in rich media, rather than text ads, but surely Google earning $1.68bn (£1.15bn) in revenues from AdSense in Q3 last year rebuts this view.
What I find most interesting is that while the discussions over Microsoft and Yahoo's failings in the search market have normally been with regard to AdWords, it's now the Content Network, not even a priority for Google, that is the biggest competitor.