Internet youngster Facebook yesterday began letting members stream updates to websites operated by Silicon Valley old-timer Yahoo!

Facebook and Yahoo! are letting users link accounts at the world's leading social networking service and the pioneering online enterprise that is re-inventing itself after being eclipsed by Google in online search.

"More and more people rely on social networks to share and discover information that matters to them," said Yahoo! senior director of social platforms and developer network Cody Simms.

"We are bringing all of these elements together to give people one simple, trusted place to share information and connect."

Yahoo! is bent on carving a new niche for itself by turning its globally popular properties such as free web e-mail, news, sports and Flickr into the centre of people's online lives.

The more time people spend at Yahoo! websites the more opportunities the company has to make money on advertising.

"We think this offers great benefit to users across the web, and it's key to helping Yahoo! extend our reach and increase engagement," Mr Simms said of the alliance with Facebook, which is based in nearby Palo Alto, California.

People who connect Yahoo! and Facebook will be able to see their Facebook newsfeeds on Yahoo! pages and share content from Yahoo! properties to Facebook.

In an evident move to pre-empt concerns regarding how the partnership might affect people's privacy, Yahoo! made it simpler to manage what information is shared. Privacy settings can be managed with tools at pulse.yahoo.com.

Earlier this year, Yahoo! announced a deal to integrate feeds from hot microblogging service Twitter into its online offerings.

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