Friendster Inc. chooses Google Inc. as its exclusive advertising and Web search provider. This is part of Friendster's strategy to expand globally. The partnership of the major search engine and the social network would call for text and display advertising to run on worldwide Friendster members' personal profile sites. In addition, the social networking website would also introduce Google Web search across the site in the second quarter of this year.

San Francisco-based Friendster originated the social networking craze, but was outdone by MySpace as the world's most popular social networking website. Friendster has been upgrading globally and counts over 37 million registered users in about 75 countries.

Reuters reported that 4 out of 5 of Friendster's top markets are in Southeast Asia: Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia rank No. 1, 2 and 3. The United States is fourth, while Singapore is fifth. Upward of 45 percent of Friendster's audience is in Asia now. Meanwhile, in the United States, Friendster has sunk to become only the 35th most-visited Web community site, according to data from market research firm Hitwise Inc.

According to research firm comScore Networks Inc., Friendster had 19.4 million active global users in January, up from a recent low of 13.6 million in March of last year.