Microsoft Throws Prizes At You For Searching

Searchperks

Microsoft is trying anything to get you to use Live Search. And now it’s time to add another to its attempts to try to pay you to use its service.

Dubbed SearchPerks, Microsoft’s latest scheme gives users points when they use Live Search, which can be redeemed for prizes. Users who sign-up before the December 31 deadline, must agree to download a small program that tracks their usage. Once installed, the users will get one “ticket” per day for every Live Search query, but Microsoft is capping the total number per day to 25. Once the program is up in April, users can trade those tickets in for prizes or, if they’re feeling philanthropic, they can donate the rewards to charity.

SearchPerks is an entirely different take on getting people to use Live Search than Microsoft’s previously announced Live Search Cashback program, which shifts Microsoft’s focus away from a cost-per-click model to cost-per-action model and shuttles some of the money from advertisers to users.

Microsoft believed the Cashback program would yield better results, while increasing market share and ostensibly believes the same could happen with SearchPerks. But as recent evidence shows, Microsoft’s Cashback scheme isn’t exeactly a slam dunk and the company hasn’t been able to stop Google’s rise in the search engine market.

So will SearchPerks be any different? It’s too early to tell. But begging people to use your search engine certainly doesn’t send the right signals to those who may be considering it.