Microsoft to offer search engine on Facebook

At its annual meeting for financial analysts on Thursday, Microsoft announced it will start offering its search service on the social networking site Facebook. The agreement should further the working relationship of the two entities, as Microsoft owns 1.6 percent of Facebook's shares, allowing it to be an exclusive banner-ad provider. Under the new agreement, a part of Facebook's 90 million members will also have access to Microsoft's search engine.

While it is not known if the deal will grant Microsoft search exclusivity, it will only affect US members of the site. The search engine should not change the look of Facebook, as it is expected to reflect the current options when it launches this fall.

In order to help it compete with the likes of Google, Microsoft has also recently unsuccessfully attempted to buy out Yahoo. The latest team-up with Facebook will help Microsoft to continue to wage its efforts to get a bigger share of the search and online advertising market. [via Wall Street Journal]

Filed under: industry
Other story tags: Microsoft, Facebook, search engine