Due to the deteriorating economic status globally and in the United Kingdom, eMarketer has trimmed its estimates for 2008 British online advertising spending from £3.36 billion (US$6.41 billion) to £3.34 billion ($6.15 billion).

The prediction for 2009 is £3.58 billion ($5.30 billion), eMarketer reported.

However, "the good news is that even though advertising in traditional media is down sharply, online is bucking the trend, at least to an extent," according to Karin von Abrams, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the report "UK Online Ad Spending."

In 2009, "budgets are being trimmed, marketers will be less experimental and the focus will be on getting the best from proven strategies," she added. Fortunately, many forms of online advertising, including paid search and e-mail marketing, will still perform well in terms of accountability and return on investment, according to eMarketer.

U.S. trends will be similar to those in the UK next year, but the online ad spending growth rate will drop below 10 percent, eMarketer predicted in its report.