Redmond, Washington — Microsoft may have abandoned its Bing Search CashBack program, but users and lovers of palm-grease, this could be your kind of day. Microsoft is trying its hand at another attempt to increase search share using rewards, now based on credits, has gone live.
With Bing, Microsoft wants to experiment a new stuff again, and the latest program is dubbed as “Bing Rewards” in preview beta for those in the U.S. is similar to credit card or airline loyalty programs that offer users redeemable points (for products, gift cards, charity) for searches that you make on Bing.
In a blog post, Danielle Tiedt, the general manager of Bing she said the company would “continue to explore new avenues to search and interesting ways to engage users and increase awareness of Bing features.”
Microsoft has described the Bing Credits offer as a preview, which will expire on Sept. 30, 2011. Aggregated credits must be used by Dec. 31 of next year, Microsoft said. The offer is only open to U.S. residents.
Moreover, this program is not an exact replacement for Bing Cashback. Gift cards are as close as any of the prizes get to real money. Still, between gift cards (to mainstream establishments like Amazon and Starbucks), movies, kitchen accessories, and some gadgets, the selection of prizes is not bad. It is possible to redeem credits towards charitable donations, as well.
Unfortunately, the Bing Credits does not come cheap that Microsoft announced on Wednesday. To participate, users need to download a toolbar, which will monitor the user’s credits and provide links to redeem them. Additionally, the toolbar will also monitor a user’s interaction with search engines and the number of ads they click through.
The Bing toolbar, as might be envisage, appears to contain a Bing search bar, also users need to be running Windows; to sign up for a Windows Live ID; plus buttons to link to popular items such as stocks, Hotmail, and use only Internet Explorer, and no other browsers or operating systems are allowed. A number indicates the available Bing Credits.
In fact, to know what exactly does the Bing Toolbar actually do? “In order to reward you for your participation in the Bing Rewards Preview, you need to download the Bing Bar which contains the Reward Counter,” a FAQ states.
So here are the three other factors people might view as catches: First, participating in Bing Rewards means downloading the Bing Bar. It will obviously track users’ credits and list what offers are available. Second, Internet Explorer is required.
Lastly, in the same way it may have been necessary to sell 12,000 candy bars in order to claim a simple pocketknife, the Bing credit-to-prize exchange rate looks a little high in some cases. Participants will need 2,315 credits in order to get a 2 GB SD card, for example. Microsoft has also posted what the company said will be a snippet of the full rewards catalog, which includes movie tickets, gift cards, Xbox 360 games, charitable donations, and other rewards. Shipping is free.
So, at this point, a $5 Amazon gift card is worth 541 credits — but there is no indication as to how many points users will be able to earn at a time, and Microsoft has also indicated that the number of credits per prize may change at any time.
Initially, users will receive 250 credits just for joining, Microsoft said, with some prizes redeemable for less than that. New offers will appear in the toolbar, Microsoft said.
Bing Search Cashback was barely Microsoft’s first attempt to lure users with cash, points and prizes to use its search engine. There was Live SearchPerks, the Live Search Club, Live Search CashBack and an even earlier program, known as “Service Credits for Web Search,” via which Microsoft signed up businesses to require and/or encourage their employees to use Live Search in exchange for lower software prices.