MSNBC.com, Microsoft's online news venture with NBC, has inked a deal with a little-known start-up to place keyword-related advertisements on article pages, a sign that the software giant may plan to rely less on commercial-search partner Overture Services. The Redmond, Wash.-based company said Tuesday that it is joining forces with WebRelevance, an 11-month-old company from Seattle, on ads for the news site. The start-up has developed technology that analyzes the content of a Web page, down to a handful of terms, in order to deliver an ad related to those keywords.

The deal will allow the news site to target promos at certain audiences. For example, an MSNBC.com news article on Lance Armstrong could trigger an ad for bike equipment, using the relevance technology. Keyword-related advertising is a relatively new strategy for MSN and MSNBC.com, as it is for all the major search providers. The MSN portal started using a similar system from Overture, its longtime provider of sponsored-search results, for ads on pages of its entertainment and technology pages. The Pasadena, Calif.-based search company introduced the system in June and has earmarked it as a key area of its growth.