IN STARK CONTRAST TO THE rather anemic Direct Marketing Association show a few weeks ago was the 2006 New York Ad:Tech show running this week. The conference, which has obviously outgrown its venue, was packed, with three floors of vendors taking up every available space. It was so jammed, I expected to see a couple of booths set up in the men's room. The audience was here, too, with people trying to navigate their way through the aisles. If you've ever wondered if Internet advertising was back, all doubts would be removed by looking at this crowd.

And unlike past shows that seemed dominated by the latest Internet fad, the full breadth of vendors and their offers were staggering. Mobile marketing, search marketing, e-mail, lead generation, Internet video spots, you name it--all were represented in full force.

In fact, the most interesting thing about this show was just how uninteresting it was. By that I mean, we are reaching maturity in the online advertising industry. There are no more shockers or wild surprises, just companies doing what they do and making money, and people coming to make deals and see the latest offers. Hey, it's almost like it is a real industry.

While most of the top e-mail companies were represented (and Datran Media hosted one of the best parties of the show) there was only one new offer that I hadn't seen before. An Israeli-based company called IncrediMail was making its Ad:Tech premiere, although the company has been around for a number of years. A downloadable application that lets users communicate via e-mails filled with cute backgrounds and characters, the tool reminded me a lot of my old Comet Cursor days. IncrediMail claims an incredible 10 million active users and over 300 million e-mail exchanges a month. While the business model is based on upselling its service to its customer base, IncrediMail was introducing an ad network component much like the old Hotbar, where a branded message appears at the top of the browser screen.

Well, time to head back into the fray.

Bill McCloskey is the CEO of Email Data Source Inc., developers of Email Analyst.

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