Mobile computing continues to fuel growth in the online search advertising, which according to a latest industry report, has generated some $1.4 billion in total revenues during the 2010-2011 financial year.

In a report recently released by consulting company Frost & Sullivan, the new billion-dollar industry is projected to post growths of 23 percent by the end of fiscal year 2011, with the study underscoring incredible spikes in online search activities and the rise of online directories in the process.

The rise, according to Frost & Sullivan, dwarfed the movements previously on traditional online advertising forms such as online banner posting and mass email marketing, including online classified and online directories plaements.

The phenomenal surge can be attributed to the growing popularity of social media sites that millions around the world engage to and can be easily accessed through the availability of smartphones and tablet computers.

The Frost & Sullivan report showed that search advertisement grew by at least 28 percent in the past 12 months leading to June 2011 in Australia, with Google expectedly dominating the market by commanding an 88 percent hold on the domestic market.

Not too far behind and progressively gaining is the team-up between Yahoo and Microsoft, which fused the two firms' Yahoo Search and Bing technologies.

On the local front, Australian firm AdLux search engine appears to be establishing itself on a solid ground to viably compete in the market, the report said while Telstra-owned Sensis, which plays on the online directories advertising realm, seems to be on the decline.

The company, Frost & Sullivan said, saw its growth shrinking in 2010 and 2011 by 10 and seven percent respectively.

The trend, according to Frost & Sullivan senior research manager Phil Harpur, is expected to be sustained well into the next five years as online search revenues are projected to put more heft and leave behind online directories.

"Based on local trends and from what we've seen internationally, we expect search to continue to increase its share of this segment, growing from 76 percent in 2011 to 83 percent in 2016," Harpur was quoted by Technology Spectator as saying on the report.