According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), online advertising grew 27 percent last year - good news as fears of an all-out recession grow. "We think there will be some effect on ad spending overall, but we think online ad spending will almost be unaffected even if there's a depression," said IDC analyst Karsten Weide. Weide believes that businesses will cut other advertising budgets before decreasing ad spending online.

Weide believes the fears of another dot-com bust are not relevant to today's online marketplace. "Back then, of course, online advertising decreased in real terms. Spending went down in absolute terms," he said. "Back then a lot of advertisers still saw online advertising as experimental and that's not the case anymore. It's a well accepted means of advertising now and in fact many advertisers say Internet advertising is more effective than other forms."