Ad Efforts Blossom in Search Engine Arena

Though budgets are mostly modest, quest for queries intensifies in sizzling sector

While not as glamorous as portals or content Web sites, search engines are suddenly the hot destinations on the Web, and they are using offline advertising to keep the heat on.

Paid listings on search engines have doubled in the past two years from $500 million to more than $1 billion, according to Solomon Smith Barney research. Now, four of the best-known search engines, Yahoo!, Ask Jeeves, Overture and HotBot, have launched or are about to launch campaigns to showcase new features and capabilities.

On the Net, “sponsored search is the competitive battle place of this year, driving an awful lot of revenue and profitability for all the players,” said Bob Ellis, director of client services at Yahoo! shop Havas’ Black Rocket in San Francisco.

Emeryville, Calif.-based