"Marketing is essentially about feeding poop back to the diners fast enough to make them think they're getting real food." - Generation X, Douglas Coupland

Bebo, the most kiddie-centric of the leading social networks, has cut a deal with Yahoo! to match profiles with targeted display advertising.

The deal covers Bebo's biggest two markets: the UK and Ireland, where it claims close to 11 million users. Yahoo!'s job will be to flog banner ad inventory - traditionally its strong suit - and share an undisclosed cut of the cash with Bebo. Microsoft acts in a similar way for Facebook, while Google is responsible for both display and text ads on MySpace.

Bebo will still provide advertisers with "engagement marketing campaigns", which is its description for advertorial.

The arrangement strengthens ties between the pair. Yahoo! won the contract to provide Bebo with search facilities in May, which was extended as part of the pair's latest joint announcement. Yahoo! will also get to promote its Answers service to Bebo kids.

Unconfirmed reports in the press earlier this year, prior to Terry Semel hitting eject on the Yahoo! CEO seat, whispered that a $1bn acquisition was in the works, but it never materialised. ®

Related stories

AOL buys a friend for $850m (13 March 2008)
Bebo courts big media with 'we're different' plea (13 November 2007)
MySpace ads zero in on user data (5 November 2007)
MySpace backs Google's anti-Facebook play (2 November 2007)
Google cranks 'relevant' video-placing contraption (9 October 2007)
Yahoo! hopes Mash will be a monster (18 September 2007)
Yahoo! Unveils! New! Banner! Ad! Engine! (3 July 2007)
Yahoo! profits nothing to shout about! (18 April 2007)
Bebo squeezes Orange in exclusive deal (28 March 2007)
Bebo poaches Google exec (15 January 2007)