Digg and Microsoft announce advertising syndication agreement

Digg Inc. and Microsoft Corp. today announced an agreement in which the two companies will collaborate to bring relevant advertising to the more than 17 million unique monthly visitors to Digg, a Web site that harnesses the collective wisdom of its online audience to prioritize the overwhelming amount of content available on the Web.

As part of the relationship, Microsoft will be the exclusive provider of display and contextual advertising on Digg. The two companies also agreed to work together on future technology and advertising initiatives.

“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, in the press release. “We believe advertisers will welcome Microsoft and Digg’s combined strengths to forge more meaningful connections online.”

Microsoft and Federated Media Publishing, Digg’s current advertising partner, plan to collaborate to bring integrated programs to Digg’s users and advertisers. “Federated Media has unique advertising sales assets that dovetail with our efforts, and we look forward to working with them,” Berkowitz said.

“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, in the press release. “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.”

“We are thrilled to work with these two world-class companies,” said John Battelle, founder and CEO of Federated Media, in the press release. “Digg is truly a remarkable brand.”

The companies expect to begin execution of the agreement in the coming weeks.

53 Comments

  1. This is the last straw. Besides their wacked out politicial stories that keep getting on the front page (impeach this and that, Mike Gravel, etc), they are now doing to sell out to Microsoft?

    Bye Digg

    MDNews Magic Word “Started” as in “Digg started off being good, but now….”

  2. “Microsoft will be the exclusive provider of display and contextual advertising”

    No matter who your advertiser is, if they have the exclusive, say goodbye to integrity, accuracy, impartiality and accountability. (If there ever was any).

    M$ will now call the shots.

  3. keep in mind that rose is a HUGE mac fan…

    i am sure all the ads will sway in micro$oft’s favor <— ooh, look i put a $ for the “s” — i am so awesome to poop on micro$oft… oh snap, i did it again.

    really… let’s pass around the tin foil hats ya’ll.

  4. I created a membership with DIGG and was horrified to find everything I did, liked, said, was logged, cached, recorded, and available to anyone on the internet to resource via a simple Google search. I am surprised that so many would think nothing of this as it allows anyone to create a profile on them, politically or otherwise. Ultimately information of this type may seem harmless, but sadly it could be used by police or anti-terrorist organization to help falsely incriminate a person should they show liberal attitudes toward drug use, guns, or even anti-government sentiments. All you have to do is look at how a mere email, which is relatively private, can be accessed and destroy a person’s reputation.

    DIGG makes it purposely difficult to delete your account, making a person request it be deleted via email, and even then they do not not scrub the cached databases. Add an agreement with Micro$oft to target users and I find the whole concept very disconcerting.

    DIGG will defintely be removed from my bookmarks. I might even block it.

  5. ” will enable us to focus less on developing an advertising infrastructure and more on developing new and innovative features for the site.”

    How does one equate “new and innovative features” with a company like Microsoft?

    Excuse me Jay Adelson. Here is a tissue to wipe the “L” off your forehead. You might want to use some soap. A little bit difficule to get off.

  6. The funny thing is, if you go to Digg, they have posted the story (carefully omitting the word Microsoft in the title), and then *gamed* the list.

    Every comment that is pro Digg or pro MS is scoring +20 – +150 digs. Every negative comment has been dug down so far they hardly show up.

    Even though everyone is going on about how this “won’t affect impartiality” it clearly already has. Digg itself is spinning its own news item! How low can these guys go?

  7. You guys are unbelievable. Microsoft becomes the ad supplier for a website and all of a sudden it’s not worth visiting? Who cares?! I’d bet you loonies would stop visiting MDN if Microsoft became the ad supplier for this site. Crazy…

  8. That sucks, If you’re are a PC user it will really sucks because Digg will become the #1 delivery site for Microsoft’s acquired spyware Avenue A.(which it’s own spyware product MS Defender no longer blocks).
    Too bad, a great site and they shot themselves in the head.
    We Mac users made Digg popular so, I guess it time for us to find the next site to make big.

  9. Kevin Rose can now make out like a bandit with some of Uncle Bill’s money to start his new venture/s – or hang out on a beach in the carribean somewhere, whichever he chooses – while his Digg dream-child dies on a vine.

  10. so if you all are ditching, then where will you go for digg replacement? Netscape? Newsvine? Reddit or what?

    I can’t decide where to go cuz I have request account removal and going to ditch Digg for good.

    MDN Magic Word: nation

  11. Hahahaha… who gives a sh*t what you MDN asslickers think? Digg is a phenomenally successful web startup company that has been around for a way shorter time than MDN has and yet generates the kind of traffic (and advertising revenue) that MDN will never, ever achieve. This deal with MS will no doubt be a lucrative venture for Digg and I look forward to watching their company grow and prosper even further.

    http://siteanalytics.compete.com/digg.com+macdailynews.com?metric=uv

    So all of you claiming that you’ll stop visiting Digg, I really hope you’ll stick to your word, because Digg doesn’t want, or need, dumbsh*ts like you polluting its site with your garbage opinions anyway.

  12. KingMel wrote:

    “The only thing worse than web-based advertising is web-based advertising site with M$ involvement.”

    You dislike web-based advertising, and yet you are posting this opinion on a site that features 10 times more banner and text ads (even ads posing as news stories) than Digg does. MDN are such worthless whores for ad dollars that they even used to feature ContentLink ads to Microsoft Products before they got called out on it.

  13. Jeremy wrote:

    “Every comment that is pro Digg or pro MS is scoring +20 – +150 digs. Every negative comment has been dug down so far they hardly show up.”

    And I supposed you have proof of this, hmm? Anytime you want to come up with some evidence of your accusations, please feel free. We’ll be waiting.

  14. LISTEN UP DIGG.
    You dummies just picked up Satan hitchhiking with a hundred dollar bill in his hand. He won’t be happy sitting in the back – In about ten minutes you’re going to find yourself fighting for control of the wheel, and that hundred you have in your pocket won’t be worth a Clinton handshake.

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