Microsoft Becomes Digg's New Ad Provider

In a move similar to the advertising agreement between Microsoft and Facebook, Digg announced that it has signed the Redmond company as its new ad provider. Both Microsoft and Digg will debut the execution of the advertising syndication agreement in the coming weeks. The partnership is designed to serve ads to Digg's in excess of 17 millions unique visitors. However, Kevin Rose, CEO of Digg stated that the company is deeply committed to delivering a high level of user experience and that this focus will be reflected in the quality of the advertising. For one, the design of the website will not be impacted by the new content administered by Microsoft.

"Our collaboration with Digg is about bringing our advertising technology and sales force to one of the fastest-growing sites on the Web and a true innovator in user-generated content," said Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president of the Online Services Group at Microsoft. "We believe advertisers will welcome Microsoft and Digg’s combined strengths to forge more meaningful connections online."

"We’re now positioned to provide a world-class advertising solution that builds upon Digg’s philosophy of providing a great experience for users and advertisers," said Jay Adelson, CEO of Digg. "As the Digg audience continues to grow and diversify, we believe that this initiative with Microsoft, and the resources that it provides, will enable us to focus less on developing an advertising infrastructure and more on developing new and innovative features for the site."

According to the agreement, the Redmond company will manage all of Digg's advertising inventory for a period of three years. All the display and contextual advertising on Digg until 2010 will be served exclusively by Microsoft.

"We’ve signed on Microsoft as our new partner to sell and serve the ads on Digg. It’s a deal similar to the one Facebook signed with Microsoft last year. This move gives us an advertising partner with a larger organization and a more scalable technology platform to keep pace with Digg’s growth. Best of all, it lets the Digg team completely focus on new feature development. New (big) features coming soon…," Rose promised.

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