CrowdStar is a social gaming company that has just raised $23 million in a first round of funding led by Intel Capital and Time Warner Investments. CrowdStar will be using the funding to hire additional talent and globally expand.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has integrated social games into search results. When searching for a game on Bing.com, you can play it directly from within the website. For example, when you Bing “Happy Island,” you can play the social game created by Crowdstar.

Social gaming company Crowdstar has signed a five year deal with Facebook for using Facebook Credits. Crowdstar is getting rid of their own in-game currency and is exclusively integrating Facebook Credits into all of their games.