Yahoo Considers Offering Prizes to Search Users

Bemmu writes "According to the San Francisco Chronicle: 'Yahoo Inc. is considering offering free music downloads, discounts on DVD rentals and frequent-flier miles to users who make the Web site their primary search engine.'" More from the article: "Offering rewards to search engine users isn't new. During the dot-com boom in the late 1990s, a number of companies including AllAdvantage.com and MyPoints.com gave cash, prizes and loyalty points to users, although many of the companies eventually went out of business or were sold at fire sale prices. That's not to say the model never works. One exception is iWon.com, a Web portal that offers cash prizes for using the site. After some success during the boom, iWon is now owned by Ask Jeeves and its parent company IAC/InterActiveCorp. " Update: 02/12 21:07 GMT by Z : Headline changed for accuracy.

Comments

Another Spin to Grab Attention

[eldavojohn]

The headline reads:

Yahoo Offering Prizes to Search Users

Yet the first line of the story is:

According to the San Francisco Chronicle: 'Yahoo Inc. is considering offering free music downloads, discounts on DVD rentals and frequent-flier miles to users who make the Web site their primary search engine.

And, in fact, when I search on Yahoo I am not offered any chance to win anything.

Why do the editors of Slashdot feel the need to spin stories so that the headlines read like it's actually news? Someone mentioned this to the press and suddenly it's headlines that they're doing it. Please don't fall victim to the ways of other news providers, that's why I read Slashdot because it's not using shock reporting to get my attention.

Yahoo wants this. You're a tool if you print it like this.

"Stay tuned for a very special local Fox affiliate news report about how just going to school can be harmful for your children. They may already be dead! Find out how at nine."

Re:Another Spin to Grab Attention

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember that Apple Computer is nothing more than Steve Jobs' garage project, albeit with a lot of users...

Re:Another Spin to Grab Attention

[darkmonkeh]

If they offer money, I'll use their search engine. It's really the only way they'll get me anywhere near it.

Free trip to Guantanamo Bay

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

After you search for any keywords on the DHS watchlist.

iWon worked well for a brief period

[bigtrike]

I found iWon to actually be useful and relevant for a brief period of time during the boom. Like just about every other portal and search which died off, they seemed to give in to greed and sell top placements, making it worthless.

I would attribute the brief success of iWon to it functioning well, rather than the gimmicks.

Re:iWon worked well for a brief period

[generic-man]

Companies like Google and DoubleClick track you around their large advertising networks using fewer than 400 cookies. Doesn't make them any better, by the metric of "cookies == spyware" that you appear to have bought into. In fact, people seem to be tolerant of advertising as long as it keeps cool new products free.

Frequent-users miles

[biocute]

This got me thinking -- Maybe instead of offering prizes (which one needs to win), why not offer frequent-searcher credits?

So if you searched while logged in (then Yahoo! doesn't even need forever-cookie to track a user's activity), you will accumulate some credits and when you have reached certain threshold, you can exchange for things that you actually want.

Chinese dinners

[kitzilla]

Yahoo is also offering Chinese dinners as a prize. Dunno why.

go'head

[voudras]

frisk me - i've got a prize for ya

Not worth it

[qzulla]

Yahoo's survey said that users who sign up for the rewards program would be required to do most of their searching with the company. The program may require users to register, so the company can track usage, or use a Yahoo rewards toolbar.

Not worth it. Let them track someone else. Then the next time the subpoena wagon rolls through town they can hang them, not me.

qz

Re:Blingo!

[masterren]

I've won a movie ticket from Blingo already. They're able to give stuff away because they add their own text advertisements (about 4 of them) to the top of your search results. From http://www.blingo.com/about:

How can Blingo afford to give away prizes?

Just like other popular search engines, we earn money from the sponsored links you see when you do a search. (These links are always clearly identified and separated from search results.) Prizes are simply our way of encouraging people to use Blingo to search the Web.

Firefox extensions..

[damneinstien]

If the search prize giving algorithm isn't too draconian, we might as well use an extension to search google and yahoo at the same time and use google's search while getting money from yahoo.

FREE Air Miles?

[immorak]

Wow, if I use Yahoo! I might get free Air Miles? What happened to what i was looking for.. A good e-mail account or search results?

Can they really be that clueless?

[YGingras]

When I search for some keywords, I'm not after free music (unless the keywords are "free" and "music" of course), I'm after relevant search results. Unless Yahoo can feed me those (and they can't at the moment) no amount of free music will make them a usable search engine.

Re:first

[fantasticalmonkey]

Negative points are given, not only to change the karma of registered users, but to filter the comments. Some readers will only read comments of +3 or higher for example, and by marking 'first' posts as first posts, people who don't want to see them, don't have to. With regards to the yahoo thing, I can't really see them attracting many users if they do go through with this. I only ever used Yahoo! search when I was logged into my mail account and it was easier than changing to google. If I was on any other webpage, I used google. Since swapping to Gmail, I no longer use Yahoo! and the possibility of getting rewarded really doesn't tempt me to search with them. (Especially since personalised google came along).

Re:Blingo!

[innocent_white_lamb]

"You must live in the United States" to win a prize, according to their website.

Re:Blingo!

[TheSpoom]

Indeed, and they're certainly quite quiet about it if you don't read their Terms of Service. A friend of mine tried to get me to sign up after he was using it for a while, and I told him a few minutes later that we're both ineligible as we're Canadians. They'll certainly let you sign up and think you can win though...

They're getting on the Blingo bandwagon, no?

[mstra]

I've had pretty good luck with the Blingo service (intentionally not posting my "affiliate" link, although it's in my .sig). They piggyback on Google's search results, and you basically have a chance to "win" randomly through each search of the day.

Mostly, I've just found it to be a good way to pick up a couple free iTunes gift certificates :)

I think that the model of accumulating "points" just ends up being more of a pain than it's worth.

Re:Blingo!

[rjrjr]

Why was this moderated down? Blingo is a legit site, and they're proof that this prizes-for-eyes models work on some scale. They're not a spam factory, they're not a ponzi scheme, they're not cheats in any way at all. You search, you get results, and occasionally you just might get a movie ticket, or an iPod.

Full disclosure: they're friends of mine, but I have no business interest with them. Just immense respect.