The longer-term prospects for the global online medium continue to be bright. There will be pockets of signicant (25+%) growth, but it will be limited to small-to-mid sized advertising countries such as Brazil, and throughout Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. China will likely be at to down, partially due to the global slowdown but more importantly because it will be hard to match the Olympics-related surge during 2008. While 2009 will not be a banner year for online advertising revenues, online will once again outperform all other media. Increasingly consumers are turning to their phones for a wide range of online content Access to the W eb via mobile devices almost t ripled during 2008, largely due to rising smartphone penetration and improved network speeds.Search across social media networks is the likely next opportunity for search engines Search conti nues to be an indisp ensible tool for all onli ne denizens and opportunities for additional growth continue to emerge.In the age of Twitt er, feedback barriers have all but disappeared, creating a near friction-free environment for playing back brand experience, campaign reactions or brand events Adoption of social networking capabilities, by both consumers AND corporations, has crossed the chasm in what appears to be the blink of an eye.The audience gr owth and engagement quot ient of online video is forcing marketers to positively re-assess the value of the online experience.Packaged goods manuf acturers, pharmaceutical companies and telecommunications rms, three of the largest historical spenders on traditional media, are moving online at a pace we haven’t seen before, even as the recession continues to deepen.Around th e globe the online population is looking more and more like the overall population meaning that in a few short years, online access has mo ved from being a luxury or some- thing cool to an essential, basic requirement.The social media trend is today’s industr y darling, but a mon- etization formula continues to elude the globe’s brightest marketers But even the most cynical observer has to be swayed by positive developments that dene the longer-term opportunities for the online medium and the e-commerce channel.Despite online video’s persistent p ositive buzz, actu al usage is averaging around six minutes per day in the U.S.Online display advertising’s share of revenue has plateaued at 20% of total online ad spend in the U.S., and no panacea appears to be on the horizon.Online advertising by th e Financial Services, Retail and Auto industries has shrunk at a dizzying pace over the last six months.a long track recor d of outstripping the growth of every other medium by a wide margin) appears to have diminished over the last few months Online media’s “f avorite chil d status” (i.e.Assaulted every day with downward-facing red arrows, many of the indicators concerning all things digital veer to the negative: Discussing the trajectory of the online medium in the midst of an historic economic downturn is a perilous business.