GOOGLE CO-FOUNDER Sergey Brin said yesterday that advertising on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace was getting better, but was still not perfect.

"In general, it's been improving but we still have a long way to go," Mr Brin told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Jerusalem to mark Israel's 60th anniversary.

"Things have been going well this year . . . it's hard to predict where social networking will come out."

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt has said the firm was having trouble moving advertising into what is now the hottest market on the internet.

Mr Brin said it would take time to find the best formula to develop the social networking advertising business.

"People are expecting overnight to wake up to a miracle . . . but these things take time," he said.

Mr Brin also repeated that he was "very happy" with a two-week test this month in which rival Yahoo used Google search advertisements.