Although security is often called a stumbling block to the adoption of Web services, companies can already secure such applications using established products and processes. The proposed standards, if they become accepted among IT providers, would simply make it easier to incorporate secured communications and to establish policies.

"It's going to make Web services easier, so that companies are doing less nuts-and-bolts development and are able to take product off the shelf, enter their configuration, hit go and make it work," said Jason Bloomberg, an analyst at ZapThink. "Now, if companies get into advanced applications that involves a sequence of steps in a business process and security, there's still a lot of guessing about the best way to do things."

The latest two groups of specifications introduced by IBM and Microsoft--called WS-Policy and WS-Trust--build on a number of proposed Web services standards spearheaded by the companies. The most notable of them, WS-Security, is a technology that is making its way into Web services software, allowing businesses to send messages that have a digital signature to ensure that a document has not been altered during its transmission.

WS-Trust is a proposed standard method for establishing secure communications between companies, including interactions that involve third-party certification authorities. It is designed to ensure document security even when companies are using different security systems, such as Kerberos or public key infrastructure (PKI) encryption. Two related standards, WS-SecureConversations and WS-SecurityPolicy, will make it easier to maintain security during multistep transactions such as building and submitting an electronic purchase order, the companies said.

"Now, when companies want to secure something across trusted boundaries, they need a leased line or a VPN (virtual private network), which is very inefficient when you have many customers," said Scott Collison, director of Web services marketing at Microsoft. "These (specifications) leverage the security systems companies have and enhances them at the message level."

The second group of proposed specification, which includes WS-Policy, WS-PolicyAttachments and WS-PolicyAssertions, are designed to provide mechanisms that let businesses describe their security requirements in connection with Web services applications, including how to work with third-party authenticating services.

Marketers globally are expected to direct more of their spending to the Internet in 2003 at the expense of traditional media, according to a study released Tuesday from the University of London's London Business School and commissioned by French ad agency Havas. The study found that marketers worldwide will increase their total spending on the Internet from 6.1 percent in 2001, to 7 percent in 2003. Spending accounts for Web advertising and marketing via e-mail, wireless devices and Web site improvements.

The study takes the temperature of estimated marketing spending in the top five markets: the United States, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and France. It surveyed 700 executives from companies that spent at least $1 million last year on marketing, which includes traditional and interactive advertising, direct mail, public relations, and sponsorships and sales promotion.

Total worldwide marketing spending is expected to rise by 3.3 percent from 2002 to 2003, according to the study. The United Kingdom will lead spending, with expenditures up 5.3 percent from this year to next. The United States follows, with growth at 4.4 percent. In contrast, Japan's marketing spending will go down by 1.5 percent in the same period.

In the United States and the United Kingdom, interactive ad spending will see its biggest leaps in the coming year based on advertisers' view of the medium as effective and cost-efficient, according to the London study. From 2001 to 2003, U.S. marketers will up their online spending by nearly 25 percent and U.K. advertisers by 47 percent.

Many top online ad sellers experienced growth in 2002 despite economic doldrums, according to the IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers study.

The report said that despite a rise of only 1 percent, nine of the top 15 companies reported year-over-year revenue growth that averaged gains of 66 percent in the third quarter of 2001 compared with the same period in 2002. PricewaterhouseCoopers provides estimates for third-quarter sales based on reports from the top 15 online ad sellers, including America Online, Yahoo and MSN. PricewaterhouseCoopers says the top sellers account for more than 80 percent of industry sales.

"While we are reporting a modest gain quarter to quarter, the reality is that the growth in the interactive advertising sector, as demonstrated by the top 15 sellers, is much stronger than is reflected in this report," IAB President Greg Stuart said in a statement.

Some key Internet companies have given disparate forecasts reflecting the health of the online ad market. Yahoo and MSN, for example, have both reported a rise in online ad sales in recent months. Yahoo chief Terry Semel in recent weeks predicted that revenue from marketing services in 2003 will increase by 20 percent.

In contrast, AOL has said that it expects sales from online advertising and e-commerce to drop between 40 percent and 50 percent next year, in addition to steep declines in 2002. Analysts have said that ongoing ad woes at AOL appear to reflect unique conditions within the company rather than an industrywide trend.

Still, the IAB sales estimates reflect a continuing downturn for the industry as a whole. For the first half of the year, Web ad revenue totaled $2.98 billion, according to the industry trade group. Combined with third-quarter figures, sales reached $4.45 billion, a nearly 20 percent drop for the comparable time frame in 2001.

Tom Hyland, chair of PricewaterhouseCoopers' New Media Group, said that while slight growth is positive it should be viewed cautiously "as we believe that the positive steps that are being taken are as much cost-driven as they are recovery-oriented.

"Add to that the historically stronger performance of the fourth quarter, and it appears interactive advertising may end the year with two consecutive growth quarters," he said.