Service to last at least two more years Microsoft Corp. will continue beaming sponsored-search ads from Overture Services Inc. for around two more years in its U.S. and U.K. MSN Web portals, Overture announced Friday.This means that Microsoft will serve up Overture ads to users who conduct Web searches from the MSN Web portals devoted to the U.S. and the U.K., an Overture spokeswoman said Friday.The Overture ads that appear after a particular search are related to the topic the user has searched about. For example, a user who runs a search on MSN for “hiking boots” would see ads related to this topic, along with regular search results. Advertisers deal with Overture to have their ads listed in search results that are related to the product or service the advertisers sell. This type of service is called sponsored search results. Other companies, including Google Inc., provide similar sponsored-search services.Overture ads appear in search results from a variety of search engines, including MSN. Overture currently delivers ads to searches conducted from a variety of MSN portals, including U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Japan MSN portals, the spokeswoman said.The extension announced Friday applies to the U.S. and U.K. MSN portals and extends the deal until June 2005. The existing agreement in other countries could also be extended. Microsoft and Overture have had a partnership in place since 1998, she said. The agreement between Microsoft and Overture is an example of “coopetition” because Overture recently became a wholly owned subsidiary of Yahoo Inc., a Microsoft rival. Software Development