Update: Live stream of Bill Gates keynote and Live Search Cashback press release is here.
Update 2: Our complete analysis of Live Search Cashback is here.
Microsoft will announce a new search advertising model tomorrow at the Advance08 Conference in Redmond, Washington - some parts of the site are already live on Microsoft now (see screen shots below). The core of the new service will be a new set of 18 new vertical search offerings that will give users cash back on any purchases made from advertisers.
A number of high profile ecommerce sites are participating in the early stages of the program, which is being dubbed “Live Search Cashback” and is based at least partially on technology developed from Jellyfish, a company Microsoft acquired in 2007. A message on the Jellyfish site says the site is down “currently offline to perform necessary service upgrades and enhancements.”
The goal, of course, is to lure high value searches away from Google. Only a small percentage of total searches are highly valuable, usually because advertisers are right on the cusp of selling something to the searcher (searches for books, for example, or mortgages).
Microsoft’s hope is to lure advertisers with a promise to pay only if a purchase is made, unlike Google’s pay-per-click model that carries more risk because a searcher may not complete a transaction. And by offering a percentage of the fee collected from advertisers, Microsoft hopes to convince searchers to take the last mile to a transaction through the Live.com search engine, generating more advertising revenue for Microsoft and simultaneously hurting arch-rival Google.
The new product will be announced tomorrow morning by Kevin Johnson, the President of Microsoft’s Platforms & Services Division. We will be live blogging the event.
Farecast, a company they acquired last month, will likely power travel, one of the 18 verticals.
The Yahoo Angle
This fits with Microsoft’s recent re-engagement with Yahoo and a new proposal to take over Yahoo’s search business. Microsoft will look to make a big splash with advertisers right away. By removing risk (moving from CPC to CPA) they will get part of the way there. But Microsoft also needs to offer advertisers enough inventory to make it worth their while - Yahoo search traffic does that.
But even without Yahoo, Microsoft may find a warm reception from advertisers, who currently see a virtual monopoly by Google in the search advertising space. It’s in their best interest to have as many strong players vying for their business as possible, so any competition to Google may be worth their time.
Look for more details tomorrow morning.
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.
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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.
At http://www.koolbuck.com offer cash back also. In addition, it has several better deals than microsoft. For example, currently it has $15 cashback if you sign up a free trial with Ringcentral and if you become a subscriber, get $30 more for a total of $45. It offers 2% for Buy.com, etc. Microsoft has a limited sellers because it has numerous competitors. So check out the website http://www.koolbuck.com to find out yourself.
Vivian
It looks interesting, but doesn’t really do it for me. BUT! Then again, this seems like a possibly good solution to saving money - and I’m all up for that. I’ll keep my eye on it…