Mobile advertising begins to take off

Mobile advertising in the U.S. totaled $3 billion in the first half of this year, double last year's $1.2 billion, the Interactive Advertising Bureau estimates.

The Wall Street Journal reports marketers are starting to take note of the media platform once thought unreliable for advertising. Until recently, technological hurdles and difficulty in measuring audiences was cause for concern, but shifting dollars from large companies are easing worry.

Major U.S. companies, such as Unilever (NYSE: UL), plan to triple mobile ad sales this year from last. The Wall Street Journal also identified increased mobile intentions from Mondelez International Inc. (Nasdaq: MDLZ), whose snack brands include Nabisco cookies and Trident gum. The company has struck several mobile ad deals with Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB).

Google is expected to capture a 46.8 percent share of the U.S. mobile ad market this year, thanks largely to Web searches conducted on mobile devices.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal.