Microsoft To Offer Cash Back To Search Engine Users In Effort To Fight Google

Lot of affiliate marketers have already used their affiliates’ link to make their own personal purchases which means direct cash back. I’m sure lot of people have thought about setting affiliates network to actually benefit visitors, not just affiliate. I think Microsoft is going to the right direction.

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Dang, we were talking about this strategy inside Microsoft more than two years ago. Glad to see it finally made the light of day. I don’t know if it’s enough, though, to really change the game but it makes it certain I’ll read TechCrunch tomorrow.

Robert: good to see you, my friend. Next time you’re vlogging from NY, be sure to drop by. We have some new girls and one of them loves Twitter and FriendFeed just as much as you do.

Is that mean I will get cash back if I use live.com to search?

If MS knows what those high value searches are (based on what advertisers are bidding), why doesn’t it also create pre-packaged pages (like Mahalo) and give a better search experience for these keywords than Google?

this is big

It seems that Techcrunch needs better spam control for the comments…

Anyway, I think this is a great move for Microsoft. One of the big problems in the advertising world is the fact that we measure just the last ad click, which means that it doesn’t matter if you saw 5 campaigns and did 10 searches, just the last search before the actual purchase will be accounted.
While this situation stays, getting people to do the last search on Live can really hurt Google.
Ironically, Atlas (acquired by MS) are actually doing great job right now trying to change this situation and come up with a new attribution model.

Cash back seems like a great rewards program. This should be big.

haha!
HAHAHHA!
heh.

Pay to search. Make it up in volume. Reverse monetization (de-monetization?). Where have we heard those before?

@scoble — hahaha!

Why not just make an easier to use version of AdSense, pay more, and get webmasters to use it?

Somehow I think this will make search results bad. Microsoft will give preference to search results for companies that participate in cash back over all the other kind of relevant information. Yahoo did that with their search when they started. Companies pay Yahoo a premium to be placed on the top of the search results. In the end, the users will lose out because the only thing that would come as a result of users search are advertisement not good information. I hope Google doesn’t go this way because I prefer to use a search engine for information purposes.

Hmmm, interesting

WTF, where creativity gone? after spending billions?

The program is live now.

Just click on the Live dot com logo on this post, it will take you to the Live home page and look to the right for “Get cashback”.

Certainly an interesting model for search. I’m not sure how strong the incentive is for the user to complete the transaction though. Depends on the cashback offer I guess. I wonder what their CPA rates will be like. That might raise the bar for other online advertisers.

This reminds me of a suggestion to Microsoft I read somewhere during the first days of their Yahoo! bid. Instead of buying marketshare for $40 billion, they could just pay people to use their search engine, and assuming only half the people they pay are honest, $1000 each would still get them 20 million customers for the same cost.

I’ll repeat my usual saying: Paying incentives to drive usage is the last refuge of the incompetent.

This model has existed since the dawn of the Internet era, with folks like Ebates.

You’re basically admitting that your product is inferior.

Is this some kind of May fool’s joke?

It sounds like one of the many ill-fated “We’ll pay you to surf the internet” schemes. If it wasn’t MS (which happens to have $50B to burn) then I reckon this would be sent straight to the deadpool…

It’s basically a promotional gimmick.

As you can see on the “cashback” program (it’s live now), if you buy a Canon camera, you get $2.19 cash back, buy a Bulova watch you get $8. Wow! “Generosity”, thy name is Microsoft.

CPA! Where do I signup?? I love the idea of customers getting cash back - makes them spend more, and MS takes business away from Goog - win-win-win baby!

Clearly Microsoft has their head up their ass. The one and only tool remaining at their disposal is CASH!

Are you still going to insist that it’s Yahoo that needs Microsoft? This ass-move of paying users to use your service is so pathetic it shows how Microsoft was and still is desperate to buy itself some talent from Y!. All that CASH has been rotting its brain since XP came out circa the stone age.

But it’s ok, Microsoft’s joker Mike Arrington will keep spinning idiotically for a nice wad of CASH!, Microsoft’s CASH.

Actually, CPAs and CPCs don’t compete each other as most advertisers tend to mix them in their portfolio. The real question is, what happened to Google’s CPA program ?

GM and Ford offer cash back to buyers, and they’re on their way out - and losing credibility daily..

Sounds kinda similar.
I hope this isn’t a poorly executed act of desperation.

Did Microsoft acquire AllAdvantage.com/Agloco?

This is essentially an admission of defeat of Microsoft’s search R&D. Now, how is it that Yahoo needs Microsoft? I’m so sick of the constantly barrage of Arrington posts about how Y! is doomed and this deal must happen, Y! needs MSFT, etc.

I like this. Will advertise on CPA basis! 

holy crap this could be BIG.

btw - for people to compare Ebates to MSFT is way off mark. MSFT is a cash cow that can survive a nuclear winter. Now I see a huge advantage for MSFT to gain YHOO search. Makes lots of sense!

Is a nice ideea th offer cash back, but i doubt about the honnesty of this action, so w’ll se in the next few week if it’s really works.
microsoft about yahoo

Any one knows what those 18 new verticals are? Travel looks like one but the remaining 17?

CPA - long term money
CPC - short term money

Way to go M$

Google get your CPA model to your usual Beta trend ASAP!

well good for advertisers ….. but really old school! not even close to being creative

My friend said, Microsoft is most dangerous company in the world. They spend million dollars destory high price companies. He show me picture of netscape, aol-timewarner, apple, linux, dr dos, MikeRoweSoft. etc…

This is why people should never write bad stuff about Microsoft. Don’t touch microsoft.

models like this NEVER work out well. it’s only going to bring a short term surge of low quality traffic.

Desperation is not sexy!

@ Scoble

Please tone down the Microhype, this and the telescope tears shows some blatant bias.

This is pretty desperate attempt at buying market share. It will be fun to see the releases as this will create a short term traffic bump, but will like most of MSFT’s products of late will fade into obscurity.

hmmm….seems like a day late and $5 short. I don’t get it

Peace,
Parris Whittingham - New York City Wedding Photographer

search engines are playing by the rules of economics. their margins will come under pressure as more competitors try to increase market share by giving up margins. Google cannot expect to make truck loads of money for long long time just with its brand name and economies of scale. some day you will see search engines paying users five to ten dollars for every thousand or ten thousand searches they make.

Or it could be done this way….

Partner with e-tailers who provide a discounted rate to searches and traffic brought their way via live.com.

IF I can get a discounted rate on an Amazon product just by using live.com one i can’t get with Google then you got me and millions more. Heck, I purposely use live.com to go to Amazon for X product, rather then going straight to Amazon.

If you can’t improve the technology, let the sales guys take the charge! - This is MS’s motto! I am wondering how can they even think to scale up such “amazing” ideas!

only in america

MSFT should’ve learned from HRC campaign on the fact that desperation and kitchen sink strategy does not trumpet change, creativity and innovation. GOOG is winning the search game simply because they have a perpetual passion to be innovative, actions like this goes to show how disconnected they are from the internet.

Rebates are a pain to use and often go south. How will e-rebates be any different?

$5 back for a $900 camera… no thanks. Come on Microsoft, come out with something good to compete with Google! I think everyone would love the true competition… But this new site does not cut it. It will only bring out low quality traffic.

This just proves Microsoft does not know what they are doing with search.

haha! AH, its TOMORROW…. where are the details?!!?!?!??!

just seems like another way for Microsoft to try and make money…cuz um, apparently they do not have enough.

great idea - but execution will determine if this can succeed in taking market share. definitely gonna try it, though.

for a major strategic announcement for msft this seems a bit of a retread. many others have tried similar schemes (cash back, company shares, discounts etc…). It’s an arbitrage play that always pencils out nicely (especially when enterprise value is factored in) but users to date haven’t embraced it in a meaningful way.

Bill
director, workhound.co.uk

This is actually a pretty interesting model. They are essentially adding a transaction cost to search. This is really the first model that takes into account the knowledge problem with search advertising (as users become more knowledgeable of what an ad is, they click on it less).

A loser’s concept.
Quality of search is what, well, people who search need.

This is a Coupon strategy not a CPA strategy. Advertisers still pay CPC and there is a kicker to the customer (not the advertiser) in the form of a cash rebate if they complete the transaction. Advertisers don’t pay a “Bounty” to MSFT for sales which are completed.

This is not something that has been done before that I know of. Programs like eBates.com use affiliate programs (CPA Ad Programs) and give some of their Bounty back to the consumer - making a margin. MSFT is disintermediating the Affiliates and giving the reward to the Consumer.

With the amount of (often successful) loyalty programs and sites out on the Internet, there is a strong business case for this to be a success. We’ll see how well MSFT executes (one of their constant challenges).

For Google this is a pretty big shot accross the bow. There is only one money making enterprise at Google - Adwords and the AdSense extension to the Adwords platform. If they start competiting with MSFT (and maybe Yahoo Search powered by MSFT) in this space they can kiss their margins goodbye. And they will still be supporting all their “Free” products.

Interesting times indeed.

This should have been done a LONG time ago, but good for M$ for taking the chance now.

To the poster who suggested GOOG would just match the CPA offering, don’t bet on it as M$ would love nothing more than for GOOG to go down the rabbit hole of paying for their search users.

Everyone needs to remember the final point here…it is the transactions that originate at GOOG that has created the GOOG advertising platform. Removing a portion of those transactions will damage the whole of the GOOG ad platform proportinately.

GOOG better ramp up their ‘branding’ capabilities.

Even if this does start to gain traction, can’t Google just copy it and put MSFT back at square one?

@52 tom…

If they “just copy it” the whole thing would just turn into a bidding war and its never a good idea to get into a bidding war with a crazy ‘guy’.

The end result is still that GOOG loses profitability in its search business. GOOG’s only move for now is to sit and hope this effort doesn’t gain traction.

I think it’s a great idea for Microsoft to get into competition with google since google has almost a monopoly on search engine. Users will benefit from it.

good timing with an economic recession in the US. should gain more traction now than ever before….

Hilarious. This service has been live at Jellyfish.com for more than a year and a half, and Microsoft relaunching it is suddenly some big event?

Question asked: Do people really change their search habits for a few dollars?
I am sure this will generate some buzz, but why would I prefer a Live.com over any shopping comparison engine or Google, which let’s me compare different shops as well?

MS should come up with some Adsense killer, that pays out more than Adsense.

Putting aside the first delighted astroturfers who claim it is a “great move”, the best quote resuming it all is:

“Paying incentives to drive usage is the last refuge of the incompetent.”

M$ = incompetence

End users love the sense of a bargain, which this conveys. Reward schemes are hugely popular, this is a good way to go.

I’m amazed no-one has done a price comparison site working on cashback only (to users ) rather than on CPC to the merchants. Now there’s an idea…

“Reprint” from my comment over at the AlleyInsider post referencing this story:
——
So this is the great announcement? Nothing of a technology advance but a simple subsidizing gimmick?

This proves how sad MSFT has really gotten on the engineering front, they are admitting whole-sale defeat. There isn’t even a whiff of a claim anymore that they could out-innovate/out-engineer Google.

Realize that also-rans in a category always resort to this sort of stuff to see if they can’t gain a little market share, while the category leader gets to command (semi-irrational, but a fact) premium prices.

But in this case it’s even worse because Google has out-engineered Yahoo and MSFT to the tune of a 50-90% monetization gap. So there is no parity on what a search is worth to each of them to begin with.

Notice that MSFT search (MSN/Live) just shrank to about a 9% share, while Google for the first time grew over 60%. So MSFT has about 1/6 to 1/7 of Google’s QUERIES, but on the monetization front it looks even worse.

[By the way, has anyone seen MSFT's search revenue reported as a separate number, as in a Q1 financial report? I would be very interested in that number.]

It will be interesting to see if there is any movement in search share over the next 3 months as a result of this, I would predict no.

Even if they buy Yahoo’s search to ramp up the scale, my guess is that consumers will answer with a shrug. This isn’t really news, everyone has seen coupons and rebates before. Plus at a say combined Micro-hoo 30% share, that is suddenly a lot of $ to be subsidizing.

I wonder how long Ballmer could sustain justifying that with the MSFT shareholders. If he spent say $10B to buy another subsidy business…

The funny thing is, the path to them buying innovative Web 2.0 companies with growing mindshare is completely open, they could buy Twitter and about 50 other companies tomorrow for a total of say $5B (at $100M a pop).

When someone says “I wouldn’t use that if you paid me”, it’s not supposed to give the marketing guys bright ideas.

People use a search engine based on what gives the best results. The only people who chase rebate schemes, we’ll-pay-you-to-watch-adverts pyramids and all that sort of thing are people who value their time extremely low, which are not a particularly desirable target market. On TechCrunch, articles about companies whose pitch is “We’re X (Facebook/Blogger/YouTube) but we pay our users to use our service” are as regular as articles about those services getting deadpooled. They’re always a good laugh because of the complaints from people who were promised thousands of dollars for creating absolutely nothing of value and didn’t get them.

Microsoft should know better, and probably do, so I’m putting my money on “desperation”.

90s dotcommer.com - I’m amazed no-one has done a price comparison site working on cashback only (to users ) rather than on CPC to the merchants. Now there’s an idea…

That’s what Jellyfish did and now is what MS is using. The results are based on “bottomline price” which includes store price + shipping + tax - cash back.

Desperate times call for desperate measures!

I think this is a great move. MS learnt a lot while fighting for Yahoo!.

When this is implemented - MSN will cease to be a search engine (since they lose whatever credibility they had) and begin only to be an incentive cash-rebate program - just like the others - expect they have more reach. Total change in strategy - basically giving up on search.

To get a feel for this end (literally) of the affiliate industry - many companies and promotions will not allow affiliates who use incentives due to the low quality traffic and frequent fraud that it produces.

We can liken this to stripping the car for parts. it will bring success in the short run - but before long they will be nothing more than another useless shopping comparison site that shows up in the long tail of G searches.

Not sure if they even realize what they are doing. But then again, maybe this is their way of honorably retreating from the search game.

still, i will not use the live search.

will people really do this for a few dollars? one of the reason I use google is because I usually find the most relevant results.

Now I’m supposed to do my research with Google, the go to Live to search for the product again, find the right advertiser at the right price and then purchase?

Maybe I’m getting it wrong but it sounds too complicated…..I’ll probably only do it for a high priced item like a TV where I’ll get a decent amount of cash back (over $50)

Microsoft is even dumber than I thought about the Internet. Aren’t they supposed to be a technology company?

Back in the day MSFT paid for users to join MSN dial-up accounts. My mother got a good bit of credit for this which she used to buy my sister a video camera I believe. It was quite generous. Where is MSN now??

sounds just like http://extrabux.com

It’s not something new. In my opinion, it’s just JellyFish with a new name. Actually, there are many good cash back websites there already, such as ebates.com, fatwallet.com, dealdigs.com… I don’t believe users will change their search habit for just few dollars.

MS needs to shell out the cake and buy Yahoo - at whatever cost.

BREAKING: “Google to offer excellent search to lure search engine users”

So, you get cash back the moment you buy something. Well nice in case that was what you were searching for but most of the people will not be interested in buying anything, so they’ll just get to see what? Even more useless ads?

Now I am waiting until Goolge raises the bar and then I’ll become a professional searcher - the more I search the more I make

Peter
do you follow me @ http://twitter.com/peterurban

Is this really going to disrupt Google?

I don’t think so!

It will make the advertising market bigger.
To really disrupt a market you need to change the game and this isn’t a game changer at all.
Open up the ad market, show the content providers what the advertisers pay and show the advertisers how much the content providers gets.
And show them what you as a service provider get out of it.
And take less than Google.
That won’t kill them but it is going to hurt them really hard.

Google keeps I don’t know 20 - 30 - 40 % of every adsense dollar?
Microsoft has an advantage here, they barely make money in the advertising market and that’s why they don’t have to protect their profit margins.
That’s a huge advantage.
You can force Google to lower its profit margins.
You hit them right where it hurts.
And it hurts the shareholders as well, not Microsoft’s shareholders because it doesn’t compete with Microsoft’s core business.
It will be a game changer!
Mind you, once you buy Yahoo you’re in the game and you will do everything to protect your profit margins. You don’t want to be in the situation, not when it costs you 30 - 40 billion!
Use that kind of money to build something really open and the audience will come.

How do you compete against Adwords where Google keeps 100% of all revenue?

Go mobile! Buy Admob! They serve 2 billion targeted ads every month!
Invest in or buy sites where the conversations happen and share ad revenue every time someone searches on that site!
In other words go where the vertical search engines are.
Don’t make them come to live.com, go where the users are!
Make sure you have a good recognizable brand because right now live.com is too generic. Show them your brand and eventually those users will come to you!

There’s a lot more they can do because when you start thinking about what Microsoft has that Google doesn’t have right now and you open it up then you’re well on your way to become a player that will give Google a run for the money!

You should check out http://clickthroughme.com they are already doing this and have incorporated it into social networking. IT’s GREAT. Microsoft should by them out, and run with the idea.

What if google opens a ‘Find the best bargain’ or a similarly named function to their search. I reckon it will kill the Msft gamble…

1. Whether you give me a discount on the MRP or a cashback - its the same thing.Discount is even better for the user as they get the benefit immediately and don’t have to weight for min $5 balance for payout or some such nonsense.

And please remember not many will go to this fancy Cashback search for high involvement purchases in any case. For that you will go for an offline purchase in which case the dealer will give you not only a better discount but also the additional x% which in this case he didn’t have to give to Msft

The only area it will make a difference is perhaps the ‘long tail’ category of products but I doubt if the cashback in such stuff would be too high.

2. Search = Google. It will not be easy to expect users to keep shuffling from one search engine to another, especially given the fact that majority of the internet population is convinced that Google will always produce better search results.

I’m not even going into the kind of impact this will have on the Msft brand as a whole [I hope they advertise this with a positive spin to the entire thing...cause right now this comes across as bloody desperate ]

Ebay…well they can kill this all in one go….A deal with Google.. maybe

Apologies for the typos in the above comment…

What’s with the Microsoft LoveFest lately, T/C? They can seemingly do no wrong, even when they do nothing innovative at all.

Sure, they have some nice pet projects in the works, but ever since the buyout attempts of Yahoo, a company that pursues excellence and innovation (and actually puts their pet projects on the market), suddenly Microsoft is “hip”?

Sigh… not a single decent usable app from Microsoft that could be considered “innovative” (even in a boring kind of way) since Microsoft OneNote 2003.

Yet, Yahoo is doing everything right. Everything. They have out-developed the greatest software company in the world. Microsoft should be embarrassed.

Meanwhile, from Microsoft, we see lovely video demos of clever apps that morph photos into 3-D photos and pics of people playing with Surface Tables. Cool, but…. for all we know, they are total hoaxes. And they sure aren’t making Microsoft any money.

And now we get this… some hybrid money-back system for search which would be great if we all actually used Microsoft search - but no one does, because there’s no reason to go to MSN at all. They aren’t even a close #3 in most statistics. They are so far removed from the 50+ websites I manage as to be insignificant. Insignificant.

All this proves is that Microsoft can’t put energy into developing software anymore (except games and they seem to be slowing on that too), but whenever they turn their attention to the web, it’s a total bust. Their solution is to try, and try harder. Admirable. But it’s costing them billions. Buying Yahoo (if even possible) is a dumb idea and won’t save them.

Sign me,

A John Dvorak fan.

How many retailers (specially the small ones) would you pay Microsoft something extra if anything at all to use this new fancy search they’ve got….

My intution : not many…at least not for the time being… why not just change the text of the existing Google text ad and say x% discount available…greater audience…better back - end..and certainly no extra cost…and…and….who knows…google might just rig their algorithm in such a way that all such discount ads get more prominence.

My worry : This may just give Google the idea of building a category of e-commerce ads..they’ll….throw in some additional features such as call back…negotitate with the seller…etc…and voila….a new business.

It’s a scam. Why not lower the price or make it free?
Why ask for more money and give some back?
Think about it.

————–
http://www.youyap.com

The strategy aims to take money out of search and give it to the customer. The only people making serious money from search at the moment are google. This is a strategy of disruption, if Microsoft can screw up google’s core market they can get competetive with them elsewhere. Its not its not inspired engieering and its not pretty but it doesn’t have to be, those slating this because its not a revolutionary idea need to look at the principals behind it.

This is Microsoft having a punt at destroying google profit margins. Where else are they going to go? Innovation - they’ve been fighting and losing this battle for years. The cashback market is sizeable enough, its a model they now have experience with and know the size of its potential (jellyfish.com) so it will be an informed decision.

100% cashback is a working model (quidco.com), although upto now it hasn’t had the push behind it for mass appeal. This has potential and it will be interesting to see what plays out.

What no-body has mentioned here is the data collection this allows. With CPA, all transactions are recorded, with the cashback model they are all tied to one user so Microsoft can very quickly build up a picture of a users transactional patterns. It doesn’t need me to go into the benefits that this provides and the potential, this information is better than anything you will get through social networks or subjective behavioural profiling.

You can’t write this off and google certainly won’t be.

Its sad that a biggie like Microsoft had to resort to ‘pay to surf’ tactics instead of developing breakthrough technology.

Cool… will i get a cash back on my mortgage?

Keep the money. I don’t like it when change is thrown at me. I rather use a better search that can find things cheaper and better.

If this is their big news, i am very disappointed.

I am not sure..how many of you know it….
but Fatwallet.com has this program going on for quite a while now.
Its an awesome program and users love it!
Now it has found a BIG reach of millions of users… good going MS!

Also…point to be noted here is…its not MS whos paying the cash out…
its the merchant whos paying the cusotmer (for buying through a (say) retailer) as well as MS (for getting a new customer)…This move will make MS a favorite for both cutomers and merchants (who are THE advertisers..)

Those who dont knw these things… keep thrashing MS… and keep watching how it goes up-up and up! Finally some shot in the ass for big(?) G!

Why dont more and more people use http://www.shopandsave.com

They can advertise websites for free.

We have been doing it at AAfter web search for over a year. It validates our idea.

Subhankar Ray

I know a guy who had purchased his own ads. Google took the 42%.

Is that difficult for MS to take only the 10%?

This seems a tad, tasteless, and classless. I mean, the gold coin with a huge ‘$’ in it looks really cheesy, like infomercial sites. Next Microsoft will be pimping George Foreman grills for 3 installments of $19.95, “As Seen On TV!”

Microsoft is doing nothing to convince me that they are innovating in search with this.

There is already a site that compares Microsoft Live Search Cashback Product Prices to the other popular comparison sites .. amazing how fast the web adapts:

http://www.startjoint.com/shopcompare.aspx

Definitely not buying into this gimmick……come on guys you can think of something better…..

Anyone remember “Share the PI” where users got a 1.57% discount on purchases at Amazon.com if they searched regularly at A9.com? Less of a discount, but was much more straightforward than the MS approach and still didn’t change consumer behavior. Will be interesting to see what happens with this.

#76 good analysis of the issues, that would be a road in… but MSFT is probably just not nimble enough/doesn’t get the internet enough to do this sort of thing… they prefer talking corp-speak without substance… just think of the silly meetings where this current offering must have been discussed ad nauseam… someone could have likely yelled “Bingo” on Corp-Speak-BS-Bingo every few sentences…

“we will innovate portals, deliver new user experiences and apply a laser focus to disrupting algorithmic search, while synergizing with our other Windows Live brand equities” - yeah, they actually said that “algorithmic search”… which really made me wonder, is there any other kind?

Maybe they were referring to the still broken search inside of their own OS…

Microsoft has seen the power of free (open source, free Office apps, etc.) and the impact it can have on an entrenched competitor (them), now they are wielding it against their own entrenched competitor…turnabout is fair play. It should be fun to watch, especially as they skim the cream off the top of the market…searchers looking to buy.

Damn. Terms of Service preclude using a web site promotion code or coupon in addition to the cash back. I wonder how coordinated that will be between the retail site and Microsoft? I wonder if one could slip through the cracks? Maybe with the smaller shops. Damn again!

Harry “was hoping for about a 25-30% discount with the cashback on top of the promo code” Wang

Seems like a desperate attempt to gain market share. I like it!

THE END OF EMPIRES

The End is Near. We will, one day, look back at this month as the beginning of the end of Microsoft. Yes, it will never disappear completely, but they are now on a long slippery decline that over the next decade will result in a significant change in their influence in the industry and with consumers.

Yes, the XBox business is finally profitable, but the business has less strategic value than was once imagined. The desktop applications business is strong, but we can all see that the required shift to a asp model (driven by Google and linux and open source) will decrease operating margins without a corresponding increase in volume. The OS business is a mess. The Search is game over.

Yes there are some good things happening at MS, (their CRM products for instance) but they do not offer the opportunity to create dominant positions of the past and as such their influence is now on the wane.

All empires eventually end. The reasons are not really complex. Inevitably size, complexity, territorial reach, and stratification, become insurmountable obstacles to their success.

Such is the story unfolding before us.

i think its awesome. They should also buy Yahoo and AOL!

they just started the war on margins… it was about time… and, as usual, is the last comer that begins

I use Google to search for information, and read news, their interface is easy to maneveur, when i look for that rare item to purchase i generally search using my address bar for an object or company, like “Best Buy, or Tiger Direct” and going there from that point or using a service like CNET and read the reviews first. While cash back sounds nice, i can’t see how they could give more than a million dollars back in a year to all surfers. not much of an incentive if you ask me. A discount at the retailer level is much more of an incentive since I have to pay taxes based on the net after discount, any cash back I could be subject to Income tax at 40% or so. I just don’t see the advantage. I am not a MS basher, and don’t understand the hatred some people put into their blogs, they are doing business, if you don’t like what they are selling buy elsewhere. Necessity being the mother of invention and all, markets are based on choices, make yours and stop bothering with those who make a different choice.

Look up TomTom One XL on google products and then on live search cash back.

Go to the tech crunch listing.
Where do you get it for less? And how do you know the retailer is legit?

This is why relevance is more important than marketing gimmicks.

I meant look at the Tech-for less listing.

=====

Look up TomTom One XL on google products and then on live search cash back.

Go to the ***tech for less*** listing.
Where do you get it for less? And how do you know the retailer is legit?

This is why relevance is more important than marketing gimmicks.

Google could play by the same rules and offer cashback, and given the Fact that it is a better search engine (no one can deny that!)i think Google has nothing to fear.

the wild they had the forests competing let it go. Forest. And grapes, scissors places

wow, what a great product. no phone number to call to get it set up, you submit an interest form and nobody ever calls you or even confirms your submission. granted, i’m not a huge customer, but i do a decent amount of advertising on google and facebook - around $1,000 - 2,000 a month - which i assume would be money they’d want even a part of if they could deliver the goods?

plus their existing adcenter platform is automated in such a bizarre way… you get approved for one keyword, but then disapproved for the plural version of the same word. and there’s just no traffic there.

i think this is a fairly solid idea, but it’s almost like there’s nobody behind the curtain.

Thats the way microsoft. stop trying to acquire yahoo and concentrate on your on services.