Bing and Facebook partnership expanded

Microsoft has announced the expansion of its Bing search deal with Facebook, including plans to bring the benefits of the alliance to the international market.

Monday, 8 February 2010

Writing in a blog post, Jon Tinter, general manager of Bing, reveals that the two entities aim to roll out their joint work to countries outside of the US.

Microsoft and Facebook first announced plans to work together on advertising in 2006, which was further expanded after the former acquired a $240 million (£153.6 million) stake in the latter in October 2007.

This latest extension of the agreement will see Bing offer Facebook users access to a range of search features beyond the standard set of links.

Facebook will also take over the responsibility of selling its own display ad space after for the first time since the start of the original agreement, although Microsoft will still provide search ads.

"You will start to see the fruits of our expanded relationship show up in the Facebook experience over the weeks and months ahead," Tinter comments.

"We are very excited about the work we have done with Facebook."

Bing also has a deal in place with Twitter to display search results from the microblogging site in its own listings.

The two companies first joined forces in October 2009.

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