The announcement came yesterday that Google will acquire AdMob, a mobile-display advertising company, for $750 million. With yesterday’s news and the release of Verizon’s Droid phone on November 6, Google is demonstrating its confidence in mobile. According to MarketingSherpa, mobile advertising spend is expected to increase by 28 percent in 2010.* Though mobile has a long way before it becomes a prominent medium for advertising, Google’s expanded presence shows mobile’s increasing importance, as demonstrated in TMP Directional Marketing’s annual local search study for 2009.

*MarketingSherpa 2009–10 Search Marketing Benchmark Report.