• October 8, 2008

Social networking site Facebook went live with Microsoft's Live Search this week, increasing the information available among friends on the site.

The deal, first announced in July, should open more opportunities to serve local ads from Facebook's small and medium-sized business ad programs that allow advertisers to target users by location and demographics, according to the Kelsey Group.

Adding search gives media buyers added inventory to serve up ads within the social network. Live Search ads have already been served throughout Facebook for larger advertisers with help from AdCenter, the research group says.

Will the added feature pay off? The deal should make Live Search more visible and increase the number of searches on Facebook that connect advertisers with people using the site. ComScore places the total number of worldwide search queries on Facebook at 186 million for the social networking site's 154 million unique visitors as of August, the most recent stats available.--Laurie Sullivan