• by August 30, 2006

Is it me, or is the pace of digital media deal-making picking up?

Last week, Microsoft and Facebook inked a major ad deal in which Microsoft will serve as the exclusive seller and provider of banner ads and sponsored links for Facebook.

This week, Google announced a deal to offer eBay search advertising outside the U.S. Plus, both companies will work on "click-to-call" ads that link online shoppers to customer service people. And in a deal estimated at nearly $1 billion over three years, Google agreed to provide News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media division with search functions and advertising on MySpace.

Of course those aren't the only deals. There are far more equity deals being struck in the nether regions of the online media world. And there are quite a few active discussions going on as well. It's getting downright frothy.

This month alone, online video-sharing site YouTube said it's talking with record labels to post music videos online; Viacom's MTV Networks is planning to distribute video clips over Google's Internet ad network; and NBC said it will create an "NBC Channel" on YouTube for its fall TV shows.

And don't forget that Yahoo in May struck a deal with eBay to provide online banners and display advertising on the online auction site. Do any of these deals constitute a bubble-like situation? So far, no one's suggesting that, but who knows....

Are we heading to an overly frothy place?