<p>Network World - Facebook today announced a trial that could let paid advertisers directly message users' in-boxes, which have traditionally been held for messages from friends.</p><p>The move is seen as the latest effort by the company to monetize its hugely popular social network, which now includes more than 1 billion active monthly users globally.</p><p>"This test will give a small number of people the option to pay to have a message routed to the Inbox," Facebook says in a post announcing the news.</p><p>VIDEOS! YouTube's 7 techiest videos of the year</p><p><a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/122012-facebook-265291.html">Keep reading...</a></p>