Microsoft wants a bigger piece of the online advertising pie and is making a global push to sell behaviorally targeted ads using Hotmail-user and search data, writes Reuters, citing a Wall Street Journal article.

Microsoft is combining personal data from Hotmail's 263 million users with the information gathered from monitoring their searches to help advertisers target ads. The software giant is using the data to sell ads on MSN.com and Hotmail.

Chris Dobson, Microsoft's global head of advertising sales, is quoted by Seeking Alpha as saying the new ad-targeting methods have increased click-throughs as much as 76 percent.