Prices have definitely risen in some verticals, especially retail.

But in 2007, the aggregate numbers once again’ll tell the story.

If “advertisers” (across the board) are cutting their spend, eventually that will have to be reflected in GOOG’s quarterly financials.

Time’ll tell. In the end, it’s so granular that it’s hard to go by a couple of verticals.

And then there are those crazy spends on things like $50 million stadium naming rights, as Godin pointed out in a recent post (Prudential). Take half of that wasted budget and apply it to search, and suddenly $10/click doesn’t seem out of line, given the at least measurable payback as compared with the glitz spends.