In the wake of search engine giant Google's purchase of the video-sharing site YouTube, a new growth estimate suggests that online video advertising will be worth over $410 million by the end of 2006.

The vision of how fast the industry is growing comes from eMarketer and puts revenue figures for video marketing on the web at over $3 billion by 2010.

As online advertisers become increasingly able to replicate the mass-marketing impact of TV, the rapid growth trend looks set to continue, researchers claim.

The market research and analysis company reports that revenues made through online video advertising has increased by as much as 82 per cent in the last 12 months alone.

Part of the reason for the remarkable growth, the company suggests is "the great desire among companies and their agencies for targeted ad messages in a familiar creative format."

Online advertising is expected to soon become a more profitable way to market products to consumers than the more traditional method of advertising on TV.