Robust budgets forecast The worldwide information industry had aggregate revenues of $263bn ([pounds sterling]150bn) in 2004, a 9.8% increase on 2003, with 2005 revenues forecast to show a 7.8% growth, according to new research released by US industry analysts Outsell.

Byline: Katherine Allen

Robust budgets forecast

The worldwide information industry had aggregate revenues of $263bn ([pounds sterling]150bn) in 2004, a 9.8% increase on 2003, with 2005 revenues forecast to show a 7.8% growth, according to new research released by US industry analysts Outsell. The strongest growth comes from the search, aggregation and distribution segment, where Google and Yahoo are powering a 20.5% increase.

Encouragingly for vendors and information professionals, the report suggests that content budgets in the corporate and government sectors are enjoying robust growth of 24%, although European readers might want to examine this claim more closely. Recent research from UK-based analysts IRN, for example, found that only a minority of European information managers were expecting budgets to increase in the next 12 months.

The Outsell report also highlights the increasing importance of social publishing, in which organisations are integrating content and user applications. The new social models for information exchange are changing the ...