Desperate Microsoft Dud Live Search Attempts to Bribe Users to Use Its Search

[mandy]

Microsoft unveiled its big plan for online search, and it reeks of desperation.

The company is rolling out a cashback search service, which lets users get rebates for purchases they make through Live.com. The payments will be based on a percentage of the product's price, and will be paid via check, direct deposit or PayPal.

Microsoft has been gunning hard for a piece of the search business, but its attempt to develop brand loyalty through bribery seems a little embarrassing when its former takeover target (Yahoo) and the far-and-away search leader (Google) don't find it necessary to tip their users...

full article: http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/05/m...-gran.html

Bribes R Us: http://search.live.com/cashback/

[mandy]

Comparison Engines has more info on Microsoft's new Crapsearch - it's based on CSE Jellyfish.

Live Search Cashback is live and seems to be purely based on Jellyfish’s system - same advertisers, same UI, same cash back model. At the same time, Jellyfish’s own Cashback shopping site has been down for a while (at least a week, I think). Not sure if Jellyfish will just transition to a Smack Shopping only site while powering the back end of Live Search Cashback...

full article: http://www.comparisonengines.com/2008/05...n-the-sun/

... the whole idea sounds more like a gimmick than anything else. People don’t want a gimmick, they want an incredible search engine which returns answers to their questions.

-The Live Search cashback announcement was a great PR stunt. Consumers are hurting and no one had ever heard of Jellyfish, so re-branding it Live Search cashback and telling everyone that big retailers are on board with great cashback offers is really cute. I’m sure traffic will spike temporarily and shoppers will buy and Microsoft will run a profitable shopping engine. The leading shopping engines generate revenue in the low hundreds of millions. That’s chump change for Microsoft...

full article: http://www.comparisonengines.com/2008/05...he-answer/