Digg founder Kevin Rose made a brief but momentous post on his blog yesterday, announcing that Microsoft was now the exclusive ad provider for the premiere social news service. While more than a few have commented on what this will mean in the near term, I haven’t seen as much attention paid to what this might mean for Microsoft’s AdCenter platform and its customers. Digg announced a while ago that they would be extending the service to product and restaurant reviews which will be a very compelling offering for marketers. While too much of the content voted to prominence now focuses on wacky pictures and fringe politics (mixed with great tech news), the real potential of digg comes into play when it can help users not just find what’s what’s massively popular, but also discover peer-vetted niche areas of content. And as great a tool as it potentially could be, it becomes extremely compelling when integrated with the Window Live Services. While it is great that Google Maps now includes reviews when it can find them, a consistent and comprehensive review source such as the diggnation would be much more predictable, and in the long term, reliable. The same kind of potential can be seen when looking at Search or MSN Shopping as well. Combined with earlier Facebook agreement, Microsoft is doing more than gaining eyeballs, they are advancing a smart web strategy.