Microsoft seeks an ad friend in Facebook

Microsoft has tried various tactics to expand its share of the lucrative online search business. It recently failed in its pursuit of Yahoo. It is paying people to use its search engine. Now Microsoft thinks it has found a promising source of users for its foundering search service: Facebook, the social networking site. Microsoft said Thursday at a meeting with financial analysts at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, that it would soon begin providing Web search services and associated advertisements by the end of the year on the American portion of the popular social network. The agreement augments an existing advertising deal that the companies struck in 2006 and later expanded globally. Microsoft already sells and manages display advertisements on Facebook. Last October, the companies inched even closer together when... [read full story]