Eideard

Facebook is taking full control of display ads on the world’s No. 1 social networking website, cutting short an exclusive deal that had allowed Microsoft Corp to manage part of that business.

However, Microsoft — the exclusive provider of Web search on Facebook — will continue to sell text-based search ads on the website as the partners extended the arrangement beyond 2011, when it had been due to expire. A Facebook spokesman declined to say how long the deal has been extended.

Microsoft also said it will further integrate its Bing search engine into Facebook while expanding its reach beyond the United States.

Facebook, which counts nearly 400 million users, said its own display ads feature interactive aspects and can target viewers based on their personal information, making them better suited to its social networking service than Microsoft’s standard Web banner ads…

A Facebook spokesperson would not provide details on whether the advertising deal with Microsoft entailed any revenue sharing agreement, or whether Facebook would pay Microsoft a fee for altering the deal early.

Har! Sign a short-term contract to show you the benefits of their system. Copy the system. Fire ‘em.

OK, guys – line up! Who’s next in line to be a Facebook “partner”?

I probably could post a photo like this every Saturday – from the morning’s grocery shopping. Santa Fe – like most northern New Mexico towns and villages – ain’t very strong on skills like spelling.

You can see why I took the snap of this “sale” sign. I didn’t even notice till I was home and uploading the shot to my desktop that the “special” price was a reduction of exactly $0.00.

Lucky us!

The on-again, off-again talks between Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. about an online advertising deal are reportedly back on.

The discussions restarted a few weeks ago, and included a meeting between new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the technology blog AllThingsD said.

The two companies have intermittently talked about partnering in search engine advertising since last year after Microsoft’s unsolicited $47.5 billion takeover bid for the Sunnyvale Web portal fell apart. Microsoft executives have championed a partnership as a way to better compete with search industry leader Google Inc. while underscoring that they are no longer interested in an acquisition…

Representatives from Yahoo and Microsoft declined to comment.

You’d have to wake them to get a comment. You’d have to wake me to get me to listen.

Daylife/AFP/Getty Images

If you thought being governor of Alaska and a new grandmother would be enough to fill the cold, dark nights in the Arctic state, you underestimate Sarah Palin, the failed vice presidential candidate.

Palin has reportedly enlisted the services of Robert Barnett, the Washington lawyer who represented President Obama, would-be President Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton in their multimillion-dollar book deals.

Barnett declined to comment. But a variety of published sources, including the Hollywood Reporter, said that Barnett was on board in helping to sell a Palin book. Presumably, the book would tell her side of the 2008 presidential election, when the GOP nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, plucked Palin out of relative obscurity and offered her the vice presidential spot. Though she was a darling of conservatives and ignited the Republican base whenever she appeared in public, Palin has made it known that she had a difficult time with McCain’s strategists…

Sources close to Palin today rejected the reports of the $11-million figure and said the governor had not talked to any publisher or given any number…In any case, there is more than money at stake. Palin has been trying to stay in the spotlight, presumably with an eye on 2012, and a book could help her extend her reach beyond Alaska.

Poisonally, I hope she stays in the forefront – along with all the other rightwing populist-pretenders – in control of the Republikan Party through the 2012 elections. Should help Obama get a second term – and hopefully clear out more R&D deadwood along the way.

Thank, Mr. Justin