Filed under: Web services, Microsoft, Social Software
Microsoft inks Facebook ad deal
The New York Times is reporting that Microsoft has inked a deal with Facebook to provide and sell ads on the social networking powerhouse. You'll recall that earlier this month Google inked a similar deal with MySpace to the tune of $900 million. The terms of the Microsoft-Facebook deal were not disclosed, but it is known that starting this fall Microsoft will be Facebook's exclusive ad provider at least until mid-2009, and Microsoft has stated that it would provide "graphical ad placements as well as automated text-based advertisements targeted to content, and over time, aggregate user behavior on an anonymous basis." Some analysts are describing the deal as a "consolation prize" after Microsoft's loss of MySpace to Google, but a Microsoft's Steve Berkowitz insists that it's "not comparable to the MySpace deal because we focused on the right economics for both parties."
I don't know if this is a labor of love or merely the brainchild of four very gifted games designers, but Level Up is a really weird mash-up of gaming elements that you have probably never seen in a Flash game before.
Let's start with the premise itself: Groundhog Day meets Memento. The game experience revolves around 'days': you explore the world and the clock slowly ticks towards the evening. You bounce around picking up gems and talking to the denizens of 'Level Upland'. Eventually you feel tired and head back to ...
