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Financial Incentives for Live Search Data

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the so-what-have-you-been-up-to-lately dept.

InfoWorldMike writes "In an apparent attempt to boost its disappointing Web search market share, Microsoft will give 'service or training credits' to companies that will share employees' Live Search usage data. The program is being tested with 'a select number of enterprise customers based on the number of Web search queries conducted by their employees via Live Search,' Microsoft said in a statement late on Thursday. The move prompts InfoWord's ed-in-chief to ask: Is Office Live Microsoft's gateway drug?"

8 of 36 comments (clear)

  1. yeah by User+956 · · Score: 3, Funny

    In an apparent attempt to boost its disappointing Web search market share, Microsoft will give 'service or training credits' to companies that will share employees' Live Search usage data.

    Screw training credits. There was an email going around that said Bill Gates had some intertron email tracking system and he was giving out cash money, and all you had to do was forward the email to all of your friends. Seriously.

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
  2. not gonna happen by Mean+Ass+Troll · · Score: 2, Funny

    how many people use msn? it cant be 10% usually when google doesnt find anything, I just rephrase the terms. dont ever remember thinking "i bet msn has it"

    besides you really want msn tracking you?

    and for what? credits? might as well be free skee ball coupons

    1. Re:not gonna happen by tomhudson · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I think it might - all those sysadmins with linux and bsd boxes squirreled away now have an excuse to create scripts to hammer microsoft's search engine - "Hey boss, linux is good - we're using it to earn the company credits."

      If they REALLY want to capitalize on it, they can hire a spyware programmer to help turn their desktops into a botnet cluster when the employees aren't using them.

    2. Re:not gonna happen by Jedi+Alec · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, sorry Bill, but it seems 90% of the searches conducted from within our company relate to sorting out Windows problems. A very common one seems to be "how do i get rid of this msn crap?". "internet explorer crash" seems to be quite popular as well.

      --

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  3. Make data collection and warehousing profitable by iminplaya · · Score: 2, Interesting

    and the government won't need to require it. Win-win...uh, for somebody...

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    What?
  4. Re:OMG - head explodes... by Timesprout · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Open Source like to bang the 'information wants to be free' drum when it suits them but the simple fact is that information has always been, and will always be valuable. With current search technology companies are building up vast data stores and anything that extracts meaningful data is therefore valuable.

    --
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  5. Smells like by Alascom · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...more monopolistic practices coming out of Redmond... when you can't beat 'em, leverage your monopoly in Operating Systems & business desktops by promising companies lower prices for products and training if they do what the masters demand.

    Democrats have control again, lets see if they have the nuts to take a stand and stop this crap once and for all!

  6. Why Compete On Merit? by GaryPatterson · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why compete when you can just buy your customers?

    Google made it big by producing a new, clean, fast and thorough search engine.

    Microsoft just wants to give people money to use theirs.

    Do they even *remember* what competition is about?