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Microsoft Offers Cash To Use Its Search Engine

informationweek.com — Microsoft plans to entice advertisers and users of its search engine with savings on online purchases on a site called Live Search cashback. Microsoft unveiled plans Wednesday to entice advertisers and users of its search engine with cash back savings on online purchases, launching a site called Live Search cashback.

Who dugg this? Made popular May 22, 2008

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  • YME1280, on 05/22/2008, -7/+100All the cash in the world won't replace google
  • inactive, on 05/22/2008, -7/+79Why in heavens can't Microsoft convince people to use their stuff by making it work better than the competition?
  • cjwhitaker, on 05/22/2008, -12/+76Can somebody say "desperate"???
  • smurfz, on 05/22/2008, -5/+60Doesn't sound to bad but I'm sure I'll still stick with Google.
  • inactive, on 05/22/2008, -5/+49So here is what people will do. Use Google for normal search stuff... because frankly it's better. When they find the item they want to buy... they will go over to MS search to simply get the discount. Once that's complete... back to Google. I don't think MS is going to get many users to stick to MS Search... it's just a matter of quality and Google has much more to offer in the dept.
  • xdeliriumx, on 05/22/2008, -4/+32This is what they are using that Yahoo! budget on.
  • jcannonb, on 05/22/2008, -21/+48Microsoft couldn't pay me enough to use their trash.
  • prototypeangel, on 05/22/2008, -1/+22Not even "Cold, hard cash"?

    Source: http://search.live.com/cashback/howToUse

    Wow, five bucks! Let the "get rich quick" schemes begin!
  • avatarpalin, on 05/22/2008, -1/+17How about.....


    .......All the Tea in China!??
  • DeMoNX4187, on 05/22/2008, -5/+19Working better is not M$ style...
  • aussieNickuss, on 05/22/2008, -3/+16And that's how I support the browser that I love.
  • vibrokatana, on 05/22/2008, -2/+15So only about 15% of microsoft's user base has an enjoyable experience?
  • eShinn, on 05/22/2008, -5/+15They couldn't even pay me to use their browser.
  • flamingduck, on 05/22/2008, -3/+13We are Microsoft. You will be assimilated. Oh wait. Okay... You will be bought....
  • fadetoone, on 05/22/2008, -3/+13Actually Google is far superior to this search engine, presumably as well as Live Search itself. As someone that has used this service for almost a year (yes, it's not new at all, it's just a re-branded service from a company, Jellyfish Inc., that MS bought) I can verify that the search functionality is in fact quite poor. Often you have to give full names of products. For instance, I'm interested in purchasing an Onkyo 606 receiver. To find it in a search, "Onkyo 606" does not suffice and I have to use the full model number "Onkyo TX-SR606B." Despite this quality, I still find the Cashback approach intriguing and have saved a few bucks here and there.

    The other aspect of this service from Jellyfish, which Microsoft has not integrated (yet) is far superior to the search engine. It is called Smack Shopping and located at jellyfish.com. They sell various products from TVs to video games to clothes which can be bought at huge discounts in a reverse style auction. As a recent example, I "won" GTA 4 the night before release for $48 after tax and shipping (which is included in the final sale price).
  • TheWindBlows, on 05/22/2008, -10/+19SO this explains why Microsoft stock value went down around 50 cents a stock today...
  • flamingduck, on 05/22/2008, -5/+14I've been a windows user since it came out.. 3.1 blah blah... I've learned my way around it pretty good, and never really minded it too much. Basically, it was Microsoft's game to screw up.... people will keep coming back as long as the product is half-decent. Anyways, I recently got Vista, and now I'm seriously considering turning it in for a Mac. I haven't had to deal with BSOD's in 10 years; now they're back seemingly every day. This thing sucks. I'd prefer to run XP under Leopard for those times when I need windows.. argh.
  • tama00, on 05/22/2008, -6/+15Its not like google doesnt give money away to use there search engine.

    You know everytime you use that top right google search bar on firefox or google search at google.com/firefox, google gives money to mozilla! Thats how they pay for that browser you are using!

  • Surferess, on 05/22/2008, -9/+17Good luck with that.
  • LargeTrout, on 05/22/2008, -1/+9Wow, you're really upset by all this aren't you? No more sugary breakfasts for you I'm afraid.
  • eShinn, on 05/22/2008, -1/+9... you wouldn't happen to be Steve Balmer would you?
  • Eezyville, on 05/22/2008, -1/+9You're off by like a couple factors of 10.
  • mikephimikephi, on 05/22/2008, -7/+15desperate
  • inactive, on 05/22/2008, -3/+11No amount of cash will save that horrible search engine. They should invest all this yahoo money, on making a decent search engine, and some decent online free apps
  • Morghin, on 05/22/2008, -4/+12*****, "free" cash is always nice. Just one problem, I'm not sure even that is going to make me want to use M$' stuff!
  • mistermaster, on 05/22/2008, -2/+9So I can use Google's superior search engine to find what I want, then repeat that search to find it in the lousy Microsoft engine to get a discount. Neat!
  • Theli, on 05/22/2008, -1/+8Actually, it's spelled "*****", not "FCUK". Don't they teach kids anything in school anymore?
  • eShinn, on 05/22/2008, -1/+8Aww. Did someone waste their career choosing to develop ASP and .Net? All hope is not lost. There's a good chance Silver Light will over take Flash.

    *..I'd never heart myself snickering so much*
  • dondara, on 05/22/2008, -3/+10"MS innovative ideas"

    OMFG, You made me blow coffee out my nose. MS ...Innovative? HAHAHAHA. Man, thats a good one. When you buy or steal it, it's not really innovation. But you know that.
  • Llanowar, on 05/22/2008, -5/+12There is a difference between sponsoring/partnership & bribing.
  • maddvibe, on 05/22/2008, -7/+13Can't hurt to try it out.
  • dondara, on 05/22/2008, -2/+8Hey Jerry, do you need some help getting that stick out of your ass? You are correct though, MS couldn't give a ***** about anybody. They are really good at marketing but programming and QA seems a little weak. And paying me to use their search engine? Yeah, they aren't going to pay enough for me to put up with all the ads and ***** links they have.

    Google FTW!!!
  • inactive, on 05/22/2008, -9/+15Hrmm...I'll at least check it out.
  • inactive, on 05/22/2008, -1/+7You know what's funny? I have adwords and adsense for my sites but rank better on MSN Search. I have to agree Google is the best and my content gets index within 15 minutes from every post.

    MSN Search takes a while but is always on page 1 and in the top five foe the keyword while Google lets me sit in the top 5 for a then drop to the second page.
  • inactive, on 05/22/2008, -0/+5no Jellyfish.com, which Microsoft purchased.
  • carguy25, on 05/22/2008, -5/+10Cashback savings. Has a vehicular ring to it.
  • inactive, on 05/22/2008, -1/+6Ballmer peak effect ?
  • Myztry, on 05/22/2008, -2/+7Trouble is what the advertiser wants and what the consumer wants aren't the same thing. You may rank better on MSN search but there's every chance the result wasn't what the consumer was after.
    And if the search doesn't work as expected (as I've always found with Live), the consumer isn't going to use it regardless. There is little value to discounts when the consumer can't find what they're after.
  • hadak, on 05/22/2008, -7/+12If you can't beat em...buy their customers.
  • inactive, on 05/22/2008, -0/+5Yeah! supposed to be $10^100 (a one followed by 100 zeroes)
  • Ossuary, on 05/22/2008, -5/+10Pathetic. As bad as that "iwon" site a few years back...
  • inactive, on 05/22/2008, -5/+10This is pretty low level for Microsoft. Rather than giving away money why not improve their search results! Who wants to get payed for searching through rubbish?
  • cadmiumpaint, on 05/22/2008, -2/+6I'd rather use google. They're the biggest brother of them all.
  • eShinn, on 05/22/2008, -3/+7Its a shame your reply is buried along with it. Glad I poked and read it.
  • fadetoone, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4What purpose would that serve? You only get cash back if you buy something.

    RTFA
  • KaiserArny, on 05/22/2008, -0/+4It depends what you're searching. For my part neither Live or Yahoo! do a very good job. When I want choice Google is far superior. Live in particular has very limited choice. In my opinion when I searched on Live, Google had mostly the same results, But on the opposite, Live misses a lot of the results Google gets.
  • brandonelliott, on 05/22/2008, -1/+5internet sarcasm is hard to detect, my apologies
  • altjeringa, on 05/22/2008, -2/+6microsoft has always been exceptionally innovative when it comes to supplanting superior products with it's tripe.
  • dpcamp, on 05/22/2008, -1/+5why is he getting dugg down? he's telling the truth
  • known, on 05/22/2008, -4/+8What next?
    Microsoft Offers Cash to Use Its OS?
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