Google has ousted Yahoo!'s Overture to win AOL's European ad-placement business. Google already provides targeted advertising for AOL in the US and now it is adding the ISP's European business. AOL said its partnership with Overture had been successful, but it had decided to work with Google in future. AOL and Overture started working together in 2002.

The "multi-year" deal means Google will provide adverts targeted according to users' search terms. Google already provides search technology to AOL members. It will now provide Google AdWords alongside these search results. AOL claims 6.3m subscribers in France, Germany and the UK. Financial terms of the deal were not released.

Philip Rowley, president of AOL Europe, said: "By expanding AOL's relationship with Google, AOL Europe provides our members in the UK, France and Germany with useful information about products and services relevant to their searches, and ensures that we are continuing to provide a vehicle for advertisers to reach a highly desirable audience in a compelling and effective way."

Overture told Reuters the deal didn't make financial sense for the firm, so it was happy to see it end. Overture said there would be no significant impact arising from the termination of the deal. ®

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