Google wins first place in MySpace race

Google has agreed to pay $900 million over almost four years to provide search features and advertising to News Corp.'s MySpace social-networking site.

Google won a beauty contest that saw multiple engines competing for the deal to serve up ads to the nearly 100 million MySpace users. The Silicon Valley giant will also provide search and ads for other Fox Interactive properties including RottenTomatoes.com and Scout.com.

Bloggers goggled at the Google deal, wondering whether the deal would be worth the money. Popularity is fleeting in the world of Web 2.0--will MySpace still be the hot ticket in 2010? Or will Google find a way to turn the social-networking space into a new ad model?

Blog community response:

"So by enabling distribution of MTV content (w/ ads) on MySpace, Google is trying to use an ad format that best fits the context of the user profiles. This basic advertising play could be the beginning of a successful online video advertising platform for Google."
--Clickety Clack

"To be honest, I had wondered why Google just didn't bother buying MySpace outright in the first place. If they can afford to commit the majority of $1bn to the deal, why not save themselves half that a few months ago and buy up and Google-ify MySpace."
--Ken McGuire On the Web

"Adwords advertisers just got a lot more volume opportunities on Adsense to get clicks from cool kids who just want to say 'Thanks for the add, TTYL, LOL!' "
--Conversion Rater