In Response to 'eMarketer Lowers Social Networking Ad Spending Estimate'

After having read Debra Aho Williamson's article titled 'eMarketer Lowers Social Networking Ad Spending Estimate', there are a couple of quick points I would like to make.

1. In the online world, and especially in the social networking world, things are changing extremely fast - so to say that advertisers will spend 2.2 Billion instead of 2.4 Billion in 2011 doesn't change my perspective on the future of social network advertising.
   
   
2. One trend which was not mentioned in this article, is that advertisers are starting to move away from advertising directly with these social networking sites, and looking at ad networks that place advertisements into custom applications. Why is this relevant? Because it has been shown consistently that click through rates and advertising effectiveness is higher on custom applications than advertising directly with social networks. This is because the user is more engaged with an application whereas they have gotten used to 'blocking out' the ads that they know will always appear in the 'left column' or the 'top right'. Once advertisers discover the effectiveness of advertising within applications, I believe social network ad spending will go up.