Yesterday morning, during the last session of the eMarketing over Breakfast sessions in Jozi, I had a brainwave. Yes these do happen every now and again…

This brainwave was in relation to my last blog post about Microsoft powering Facebook search. When Microsoft uploads their Live Search they will be able to collect data from individuals and their search habits. If they also had access to the Facebook users' profile demographics as well as their search habits, that information would be really valuable and detailed.

Imagine how personalised they could make search advertising. Or how detailed a search profile they could build about their users. There is almost an unlimited potential for ideas that could be used. For example, "Your friends have recently searched these topics, they may be of interest to you" or "A friend thought these search results would be of interest to you".

Google has a database revolving around search and search information, but they don't really have the ability to add demographics to this profile, unless you hold a Google account that is (iGoogle, Gmail, etc.).

So could there be an underlying purpose to Microsoft's new deal with Facebook? I'll let you be the judge of that.

I do realise that this will have a lot to do with Facebook users adoption of Live search, as opposed to opening a new tab/window and just using their favourite search browser. We will just have to wait and see.