Microsoft to advertise on Facebook

After losing out to Google in the battle to sign an advertising deal with Myspace, Microsoft have gone for the second best thing, University favourite, Facebook.

Facebook only has around 9 million registered users, whereas Myspace has closer to 100 million so it looks like for the immedate future Microsoft will remain second best in terms of social networking exposure. Google's deal with Myspace cost $900 million for three years, as of yet Microsoft has not released details of their finacnial agreement with Facebook.

Microsoft's deal will bring up banner advertising and sponsored links on the Facebook site sometime this Autumn. Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president of the Online Services Group at Microsoft, said in a statement:

"We believe that the combination of Microsoft and Facebook strengths will be incredibly attractive to advertisers as they forge more meaningful connections with one of the largest, most engaged audiences on the Internet."

We reported that Google were interested in possibly buying social networking sight Facebook a few months back. With the companies also getting heated about other issues it is starting to look like the internet playground isn't big enough for these two players.

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