Google to Topple Facebook as Leader in Display Ads, eMarketer Says Google is set to overtake Facebook in earning money from display ads, making it the leader in all three types of digital advertising -- search, mobile and display. That is the prediction of eMarketer, a research firm that many in the tech industry rely on for its ad revenue forecasts. Earlier this year, it said that Facebook would maintain the lead, but this month cut its forecast for Facebook's revenue from display ads, which are ads with images or video. Google is the latest company to shake up the industry in recent years. Yahoo was dominant in display advertising until last year, when Facebook overtook both Google and Yahoo. Google will collect 15.4 percent of display ad dollars this year, or $2.31 billion, up 38.5 percent from last year, according to eMarketer. Facebook will earn 14.4 percent, or $2.16 billion, up 24.4 percent. Yahoo will earn 9.3 percent of display ad dollars, Microsoft 4.5 percent and AOL 4.3 percent, eMarketer said. The overall display ad market will grow 21.5 percent this year, according to the predictions. That is slightly less than originally expected, in part because advertisers are paying less for display ads. Google has been pouring resources into its display ad business and courting Madison Avenue. For the company, which still makes most of its revenue from search ads -- the simple lines of text that relate to an Internet user's search query -- finding a new source of revenue has been crucial. Display ad spending growth will outpace search ad spending growth for the first time this year, eMarketer said. Nikesh Arora, Google's chief business officer, crowed about Google's display ad business on its earnings call in July and said, "four-line text ads are not as exciting." Google runs the DoubleClick Ad Exchange, a marketplace for display ads that sells ads all over the Web, and has recently bought several companies to improve its display ad technology. Facebook last week introduced an ad exchange. EMarketer attributed Google's ascendancy to stronger-than-expected performance from mobile ads, the success of display ads on YouTube and strong performance from DoubleClick. Also, it said Google has benefited because it has longtime relationships with advertisers from its years in the search ad business. What does all this mean for Yahoo? Even as other Yahoo businesses struggled, its display ad business used to be strong, but now its percentage of the pie is shrinking. While Yahoo's board chose Marissa Mayer, a product specialist, as chief executive instead of an ad sales expert, she has said that the company would continue to focus on ad technology.