The William Blair & Company, in collaboration with the Chicago Interactive Marketing Association (CIMA), announced a survey that found online marketing budgets to increase by 20 percent in 2006.

Another survey finding indicates that 64 percent of respondents did not identify click fraud as a big threat to the long-term viability of search engine marketing.

Rich media was selected by 45 percent of respondents as the fast growing ad format.

Marketers surveyed said that Google Inc. was the dominant player in the online ad space.

"Despite aggressive investment by competition, Google continues to gain market and mind share, as 69 percent of respondents characterized Google as the best-positioned major player. While our open-ended questions revealed optimism regarding Yahoo's search platform enhancement initiative (Project Panama) and a community that seems to be rooting for the company, only 22 percent characterized Yahoo as best positioned, down from 30 percent last survey," says  William Blair equity research analyst Troy Mastin.