Facebook Expands Bing Search Deal

Microsoft and Facebook have ended their advertising deal in which the software giant sold display ads on the social network, while at the same time expanding their search relationship. The announcement comes as a major Facebook redesign is being rolled out gradually to users.

Microsoft will continue to sell search advertising for Facebook, but the social network will take over the selling of its own display advertisements in the US (it began taking over international sales in the last few months). Microsoft said this was a “mutual decision” since “it just made more sense” for Facebook to lead its own advertising strategy. Nevertheless, it’s hard to believe the company is happy about losing the advertising section of its partnership, although banner ads weren’t doing so well on the site anyway. In fact, Facebook stopped running traditional banner ads altogether when it launched the new design and instead is focusing on selling social campaign display ads….read the rest here.