Social networking giant, Facebook, has made its latest acquisition, this time purchasing a firm called The Find. This company is responsible for a search engine that specialises in helping users find products to buy online, according to PC Advisor.

Although the amount that Facebook paid as part of the deal has not been disclosed, it is known that many of the employees of the company will be transferring over to work at Facebook.

An announcement from The Find, relating to the takeover, revealed that the technology created by the company will be integrated into Facebook's site, mostly with the intention of improving the relevance of the ads that are displayed when users visit.

The Find's search engine for e-commerce already includes over 500 million items across half a million different companies offering shopping online, which will allow it to provide comprehensive information to users.

For Facebook, this is important because it means that it will be better equipped to target ads at people depending on their hobbies and habits, as well as based on their previous browsing history.

Users will no doubt have realised that the cookies stored by their browser will have an influence over the ads they see when they head to Facebook. But sometimes these ads can be a little less than helpful, which is why an improvement to the underlying technology will be good for everyone.

On the downside, The Find will no longer operate in its current form, with its e-commerce search engine being discontinued over the next couple of months, while it is absorbed by Facebook.

Facebook is free for its users, but the price paid is in personal information, which is why e-commerce adverts ultimately help to support this global social networking service, rather than subscription fees.