Year in review: Searching for dollars

Search:Commercial search saves the day For many Net companies, commercial search was the saving grace of advertising sales in 2003, reminding everyone of the early promise and growth of the online ad industry. But it also sparked fierce competition among Internet big wheels, foreshadowing greater rivalry and further clashes in 2004, as more advertisers and publishers depend on the efficiency--and riches--of paid-search listings. Sales from paid search--Web marketing that pairs text ads with keyword-triggered search results--accounted for an estimated $1.6 billion of the $6.3 billion online advertising pie this year, up significantly from 2002. It also helped , Yahoo and others turn profits. Early in the year, the major Web portals committed to developing search engines to compete with No. 1 search provider Google. Microsoft invested hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a search service that would tie together its various Web sites, applications and dominant PC operating system. In a dramatic industry shakeup, for about $1.7 billion, and started testing its 2002 acquisition, Inktomi. But it has not yet displaced its longtime search partner, Google. Overture, the pioneer of commercial search, started flying. The Google IPO intensified in 2003. Financial analysts