The Great Display Advertising Cash-In of 2013

It's not often that you see Google, Instagram and Twitter all agree on the same thing, but suddenly all of them are giving a big thumbs up to display advertising.

Display? Isn't that the outmoded form of online advertising that was supposed to die out in the transition to mobile? Well, actually display is stronger than ever. Despite the fact that no one likes banners and no one clicks on them, the category grew 5.3% in the U.S. in the first half of 2013, according to Kantar Media. Much of that growth comes from programmatic buying — a.k.a. bots that do the bidding that humans used to.