Dada, Google buddy up for "friend$"

Italian-based social networking and mobile community services provider Dada.net announced a partnership with search giant Google to launch "friend$," an affiliation program that promises financial compensation in return for user-generated content. Based on Google's AdSense platform, "friend$" enables subscribers to earn fees from text advertisements placed on their own web pages as well as ads on pages of friends they've invited into the Dada service. According to Dada, "friend$" strengthens the promise of web advertising via the viral nature of social networking, encouraging subscribers to upload user-generated content like blogs and video clips to generate interest in their sites and, by extension, earn revenue.

"friend$" is currently available in the Italian and U.S. markets, with Spain, Portugal and Brazil due to follow. "friend$ is the new frontier in the social networking community world," Dada chairman Paolo Barberis said in a prepared statement. "With this project we want to show that the potential blogs have is not only for gathering user-generated content but is also a business model for generating an income for those who join."

 For more on "friend$":
- read this release

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