According to the Internet Advertising, spending for online lead generation grew to more than $1.3 billion in 2006. That's a 73 per cent jump in one year, making it the fastest-growing segment of online advertising spending.

In the traditional online marketing, adverts lead the potential customers to websites but in this co-registration strategy, companies can be paired up with customers who have expressed an interest in what the company's selling.

The fact that customers and businesses are "paired up" means that "online business dating" would be a far better name. But despite the amusing terminology, there may be a real future in this methodology.

However, it's not all love at first sight - there were abuses during online lead generation's early days, with marketers skeptical of the effectiveness of leads gained through deceptive offers and indeed some legal concerns over privacy violations and false advertising.

So will online lead generation have a successful relationship with online marketing or will it just be another hype-filled but short-lived love affair?