Display advertising provided by Microsoft is already expected to account for a big chunk of Facebook's sales this year forecast to rise to about $350 million this year, up from about $150 million last year.

Attracting a higher volume of search traffic would boost the effectiveness of Microsoft's search technology and help it deliver more relevant adverts to users – one of the things it hoped to gain from a Yahoo deal, said Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive at Microsoft. Facebook stressed that the deal was at an early stage and that details of how Microsoft search would be integrated into the Facebook site had yet to be decided.

Categories: Articles, Broadband