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Google and MySpace Team Up

The deal between Google and News Corp.'s Fox Interactive sites including MySpace is expected to generate up to $900-million (U.S.) in revenue for News Corp.

Internet's giant Google Inc. and the owner of social networking website MySpace.com reached a deal through which Google will provide Internet search and advertising features to News Corp., the company which owns the website.

MySpace.com and the other Fox' sites will add Google search boxes, thus eliminating the main reasons why people leave sites like MySpace. In return Google will provide search results and keyword ads targeted by people.

"We think it's important that we move Google to where the users are, and the users are moving to user-generated content and particularly the sites of Fox Interactive," Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt told analysts and reporters.

Winning the exclusivity to ad on Fox' websites Google eliminates the possibility that ad dollars go to rivals like Yahoo Inc. or Microsoft Corp.'s MSN.

"MySpace's audience is highly desirable for a certain class of advertisers," said David Card, an analyst with Jupiter Research in New York. "It's a very good partnership. It's the best search engine and the best social-networking site."

According to Alexa Internet, as of July 2006, MySpace.com is the world's fourth most popular English-language website and the sixth most popular in any language. It is also the most popular site in the United States, accounting for 4.5% of all website visits.