We all want things to get better for business in general. Even with Internet marketing not suffering the same decimation that most advertising sectors did during our recent and ongoing economic slide, there was significant impact. If nothing else the economy cooled the fast growing industry and made it look more, gulp, real.

There may be reason to celebrate though. A recent study from SearchIgnite tells us that paid search spending has seen nice growth in Q2 when looking at year over year results. Here is a picture of it for you.

We always like to warn our readers that you must consider the source of research in this age of “Research as PR”. I have no reason to challenge the integrity of these findings but with SearchIgnite being a search marketing company it stands to reason that caution should be exercised regarding what is being demonstrated.

Of note, if you look at the quarter over quarter numbers the picture is a bit less rosy but that could be a seasonal phenomenon. One thing that looks pretty obvious though is that Yahoo is truly being faded out of the search marketing picture as the full integration of bing and Yahoo looms. Nothing like uncertainty to drive people away from something.

Since our readers are the types who have actual experience with this kind of activity we ask “What are you seeing in paid search these days?”. Is it making a real comeback that could eventually get back to pre-recession levels or has this economy set new metrics for growth and what is defined as realistic expectations?