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Microsoft To Pay People To Search
kolicha writes "After the failed Yahoo bid, Microsoft is going to try a new approach to gain market share on their rivals Google. Sponsored links will be pay per purchase rather than pay per click, and search users will be offered 'cash back' on their purchases."
Sounds more like "thrash-back" instead of "cash-back". I hope Yahoo!'s board and investors breathe a collective sigh of relief that they have a new magic bullet to fend of Murdoch and msoft. What bullet? Offer the shoppers the same "benefit" that ms is seemingly thrashing about with. It's is analogous to the paper rebates in many respects.
Ha! So, now, once again, msoft is showing it is POOR at innovating. Yet ANOTHER reason Yahoo! needs to vigorously resist this attempted shotgun rape, umm, wedding. And, resistance can be in the form of further open-sourcing or threatening more open-sourcing to keep msoft and it's wealthy minion mouth-pieces at bay.
Now, Yahoo! and Google can globally offer what mshaft is seemingly wanting to offer only to US residents or CONUS-based purchases. Maybe it is the case that msoft IS globally offering "thrash-backs" in each country, but that might not be tenable considering how relatively low prices *might* be in non-CONUS consumer markets. But, Yahoo! and Google together, and with Baidu, and, say, CyWorld, and the analogs in Japan, Taiwan, etc, can do a REAL SLAM-DUNK whammo on msoft.
GO YAHOO!, GOOGLE, BAIDU, YAHOO! JAPAN, CYWORLD, et al. DO IT. DO IT!
And, dance, thresh, thrash, and jig at msoft's expense to the tune of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2yCgO1vRT8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_It_('Til_You're_Satisfied)
COOKIE WARNING FOR SITE BELOW:
http://www.lyricstime.com/cookie.php
But, I laughed reading the following:
"much better."
"Microsoft is like a bad restaurant - no matter what the incentive, you don't want to eat there. Their product isn't working and their share of the market proves that." "
Maybe msoft should consider a saying one of my friends (Chinese and Vietnamese) said about Chinese restaurants: "The dirtier the bathroom, the better the food." But, then, is there an anallog in msoft's case? They've pretty much beaten black and blue their customers, partners and suppliers. What's next, turning them into food chips? Will we hear, "MICROSOFT IS PEEEEE-POHL"? (ala "Soylent Green")
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
This will get them some temporary hype. This will get them more activity - but only of people specifically looking for discounts. This isn't going to make them more popular as a search engine. The only way to do that is to make the better search engine.
How can I get Microsoft to give me cash back to not say bad things about them in online forums?
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
So how long until some makes a website for giving you deals via Microsoft's "cash back"?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FatWallet
"FatWallet also features a Cash Back rebate shopping section, where users can receive a percentage of purchases back from purchases made through referral links to hundreds of online retailers. Originally known as FatCash, this feature is where FatWallet got its start."
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Didn't they try this with the Live Search Club?
Sell xboxes at a loss, pay people to search; the next thing you know, they will be paying vendors to put a stripped down version of XP onto mini-notebooks. In Google's case, they could afford to fork over some money to searchers, too. But Linux couldn't compete if it had to pay the vendors. So that's how MS competes with free and/or better stuff, buy them off.
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
Unless they are implementing a very good product search to compete with Google Shopping, I don't see the appeal and I don't think that product searches drive the general search market.
On top of that, everyone thinks of themselves as "the type of person who doesn't click on ads (well except for that one time)"
This feature is marketed at a group of people who are going to plan at looking at the ads when searching to find out if they can get a deal. I don't think that group of people really exists.
Spooooon!!!!!
Now there's actually an incentive for Live search to return worthless results! 'Cause if they found anything worthwhile, it costs Microsoft money. Genius!
my blog
So, assuming that the story is true - how, exactly, does Microsoft propose to pay people for searching / purchasing. Is this "pay" going to come in the mail as a check, or is it going to be a discount on purchases - or is it going to be a promise to pay you somehow sometime in the future?
I'm tempted to say something about "trust" and "Microsoft" here, but am wary of the Microsoft lovers out there just waiting to down-mod this post.
... buying Yahoo stock?
A linux distribution / service contract?
A copy of OSX on a shiny new MacBookAir?
A throwproof chair?
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
Maybe iwon.com and search.msn.com can battle it out for 2,174th place.
The important searches are things like "Best Digital Camera," "Kelly Blue Book BMW 325i," "The Da Vinci Code," and so on. These are searches that are very likely to result in a sale.
What MSFT is doing doesn't seem that innovative because it's so obvious - but no one is doing it.
Think of club promotors on sidewalks in NYC or Vegas or whatever. Typical entry is let's say cover of $10. But if you take a stupid little card from someone advertising the club, maybe that gets you free entry. Why? No reason, you aren't special, just you happened to pick up the advertisement. The club is paying the promotor to offer you a discount, so that you eventually buy the real product (drinks at the club, or whatnot).
So if the marginal profit on a $400 digital camera is about (total guess) $150 bucks, and MSFT only demands the advertiser pay a cost per action, then that's $150 dollars of value that can be shared by a) Sony/Canon/whoever, b) Microsoft, and c) the USER!
The point here is that it doesn't even matter if Google offers better search now! Going forward, I'll probably product search/research on Google, but go over to Microsoft to make the all-important final decision (because it's plainly the rational decision - my product WILL be cheaper)!
If people pay attention, instead of throwing it out the window, this could be a gamechanger - it isn't the same as BigWallet, which essentially just shared the already offered referral deals with you (half a percent of the sale, usually). This could be a significant deal for everyone involved. Cost per action payment is the key.
The marketingdroids will call this the ... wait
MicroSoft PayYou! Search Service?
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
iwon.com was the first thing that crossed my mind when I read this.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
How do they expect me to buy into this, when I've yet to get paid for all those emails I forwarded for Microsoft's testing!
-Mike
I'm sorry; I don't know what I was thinking!
Desperation is a stinky cologne.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
seriously. Microsoft is a software company. What is the reason for their obsession with the search and advertising market? Last time I looked they are making money. Is it just because they want to take revenue away from Google?
I know, corporations exist to make money. But they don't have to go so far from their core competency (spare us the snarky comments) to do it. My heating oil provider doesn't have an internet search engine. My insurance company isn't creating web 2.0 video applications. Stick with what you're good at.
...If I remember correctly, didn't Amazon do something where if you searched enough times per week on a partner search engine, you'd get a certain percent off anything you bought on Amazon?
allow google to buy THEM
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Anybody still getting that hoax email that claims that MS will pay you for every person you forward it to, and everybody they forward it to, etc etc? Funny, first time I got that hoax was at least 10 years ago, probably longer. I still get it from time to time. Now in light of this new development, I'm thinking maybe I should have forwarded it after all...
the idiot who used wasted his/her mod points on fanboi-modding down parent post, please take time to explain us, the /., why the hell did you waste your mod points to slight any opinion ?
jerk ?
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"Vista capable"
that should give you a doctorate thesis's worth material.
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5 bucks over 100 bucks is not going to make me take any hassles of doing a msn search for example. i readily donate that amount to open source projects from time to time for example, even though im not making big bucks yet.
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I wonder, how long till someone writes a Firefox plugin that alters Google search results to make clicks appear as if they are from Microsoft's search - that way users can use the better search engine and still cash in.
Microsoft bought Jellyfish, and this is exactly the sort of thing Jellyfish does - but I can't see how this will help Microsoft's search efforts at all. I have a Jellyfish account; but the only time I go there is when I'm looking for the best deal on something I'd already decided to buy. If I want to search for something, I use the engine that gives me the best results - and that's Google. I'm not going to switch search engines just because MS (or anyone for that matter) says "hey, use our search - and if you click on one of the ads that comes up, and buy something, we'll give you a small amount of money!"
#DeleteChrome
I think persuading me to use an inferior search tool with results that reflect a hidden agenda would be a hard sell. Still there may be noobs out there that are still clueless enough to use them. If they have a positive experience, they will /. the search terms and bring Mr. Softie's servers to their knees. Of course we all know that those servers will not stop there, but continue to a fiully supine position.
Keep lurking, 'GrassHopper', all will become clear in time.
"the idiot who used wasted his/her mod points on fanboi-modding down parent post,..."
By your UID, I would expect that you already know the answer to your question, but that the answer is still bothering you.
Search inside yourself for the answer, there, you will find all of the questions you want answers for...*head a splodes* WTF?!?!? Uhmm...never mind!
'And in a hundred years from now, who will care?' also comes to mind...just thinking...
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
(im not a fanboi of anything. neither i am socialist. - im at times conservative even - )
microsoft is in bed with the big buck corps. those big buck corps, who are also generally business partners of microsoft, do not like what companies like google, yahoo and the others are representing - the new, more liberal trends that give more freedom to both customers and entrepreneurs. they dont like what they cant control.
everything was ship shape in the world up until internet revolution. there hasnt been any means for many 'small' people to hit it big, make big bucks and become a problem because they havent passed through the hallways of power (starts from your local chamber of commerce) to be approved and made a part of the existing machine. people started just setting up some websites with some bright ideas and voila - instant insane $$$. so fast that the machine havent found the time to assimilate those upstarts before the upstarts had made big buck to the level that they were impossible to assimilate.
google is one example. it was a nuisance at the start, then it became so effective and far reaching that establishment got really annoyed with it. what to do ? enter microsoft.
a company, irrationally, totally absurdly, defying all teachings of economics and business management, jumps into an area that it is weak, unestablished, and stubbornly tries to make progress in that area AT THE EXPENSE OF ITS CORE business. which is, software, windows.
how can this happen ? are gates, balmer, and others total idiots ?
hell no. if they were, there wouldnt be a microsoft in the first place. so what is the reason ?
they have been TOLD to do it, pressurized to doing it by the establishment that they have been members of, long before. you know, old boys alliance. you grease my back i grease yours. i cut a deal for you you cut a deal for me. i donate to your pretty little charity you do something for me and so on. even fanbois here cant deny that microsoft is much entangled with the old style, monolithic, dinosaur big buck corporations.
so they are told to fight google. because the establishment hasnt been able to contain it. because google basically controls efficient access to information. and google has been non compliant with the usual workings of the machine too, for example the censorship, control of information etc is way below the level establishment would like to have, on any google service. they are, therefore a detriment to the control.
whoooopssssss. in comes the 'bright boyz of the old boyz club' - microsoft. they start fighting google. they neglect their core product, software, and even their other well performing products (even hardware, peripherals), but stubbornly fight in a field that has become SO identified with the name of their competitor that, it looks surreal. people say 'google' it, not 'search' it. even 60 year old people say that. they know google. 'microsoft has a search engine ? how about that ?'
so is the state of things. bad for microsoft shareholders, bad for microsoft, for they are being a mere tool at the hands of the establishment, bad for internet community, who is basically 'the people', 'us, all, everyone', because old establishment is still refusing to die and give way to the new, and hacking back at us again and again, this time using some company of the new tech age.
how will this work out ? microsoft will lose. because it is evident that some party is backing google. its definitely not the big buck corps, for there is none affiliated with google, not any celebrity names with huge wealth, but some very strong financial source. reason ? hell, if they didnt have such a good backing, they would have been eliminated, 'handled' in some way LOOOOONG ago. the financial power of the establishment is big. just check the top 100 financial entity list, you will find many companies, ahead of many countries there. but it didnt happen. my bet is, some financial source in europe is supporting them, and deterring any hostile financial moves against them.
good for us.
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But, does it work with Google Checkout?
OH GOD THE ASCII, IT'S BURNING MY EYES!!!!!!!!!1111111111
Actually, come to think of it, it's not. In fact, it's not even particularly offensive, outside of being so mindless and cliched.
Congratulations on not even grossing anybody out with your shitty ascii art. Now go drink bleach.
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
I just launched Rbate, which also arranges cashback payments, but the product maker can also survey the purchaser and find out and reward the organizations that provided the purchaser with helpful advice.
Product makers can also survey those who bought a competing product, allowing them to find out why they lost those sales. The survey taker also gets paid for these answers.
In addition, consumers are given a search engine dedicated to purchasing help.
The aim is that money that product makers now spend on advertising instead funds better information for consumers, and better feedback from purchasers to makers.
"It will only be open to people living in the US."
This means that I can't hire someone in the Soviet Union to _actually_ do the work for me, making purchases for which I'd fleece M$ for the cashback, only to return the goods a few days later at the original price.
Damn, damn, damn
Back in the last related story, lots of people were asking what kind of capital (in not so many words) Microsoft would gain by purchasing Yahoo or a part of it. This story should remind those people of the answer to their question.
Microsoft is not thinking about income in any sort of immediate sense. Microsoft, from the very beginning, has made sure to have a central presence in whatever the center of PC technology is at any given time. This is a continuation of what Microsoft has done/been since it's origin, not a case of looking for immediate revenue.
Property is theft.
really, this has to be one of the more pathetic attempts to get internet attention, ever
It says in the article this cash back will only be for people in the USA. It is a shame.
If I (in New Zealand) wanted to buy say, an iPod, I could be convinced to click on a Microsoft-affiliated retailer if I thought I would get a decent discount, considering they cost roughly the same everywhere.
But how would Microsoft know I am living overseas, if I just use a Paypal account? Can anyone think of how I could circumvent this ban?
If the pattern goes 9am, 10am, 11am, why isn't noon 12am?
Actually, pay per purchase would go a long way to solving the problem with click monkeys. Google should look into it.
why is MS so stupid? its blindingly obvious that the reason people use google is because its not a convoluted piece of crap (eg. every other search engine). Its a clean interface with developmental emphasis on the search algorithm. JUST COPY GOOGLE and make an MS version. or better yet, apply the same principle to...an operating system.
I'm still waiting for Bill Gates to send me $1000 for helping Microsoft with that email testing they did a while back.
... you can afford to do two, nay, three things at once!
Seriously though -- Microsoft is close to saturation of their two big moneymakers, Windows and Office, throughout the Western world. They can continue milking them for years via the upgrade cycle and expanding the share elsewhere, and they will, but just doing that doesn't put up the big numbers. So they're going to constantly try going after new markets and, eventually they think, they're going to succeed big in one. Like, "What do you mean Apple Computers makes MP3 players?! They're a computer company!" big.
And then they're going to take that success and do exactly what Apple did with the iPod -- tie it straight back into The Empire, and make megabucks. iTunes is already just a marketing expense to sell iPods and iPods are eventually going to be just a PR campaign to sell Macs which happens to generate a few dollars on the side.
And if this idea, or the XBox, or MSN, or the Zune, or that new touch screen table, or a thousand ideas fail -- so what? They've got $30 billion in the bank, patience, and a certain bit of maniacal efficiency in their favor. Sooner or later, they'll find their iPod.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
I thought that the big fuss about Google Checkout was precisely to eventually allow pay-per-purchase (hidden somewhere in the Q&A here, where Schmidt is asked "why not just paypal?": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8bPOcPRLnU). How is Microsoft doing this and how is it different? BTW, I already get some cashback for that too...
I thought that the big fuss about Google Checkout was precisely to eventually allow pay-per-purchase (hidden somewhere in the Q&A here, where Schmidt is asked "why not just paypal?"). How is Microsoft doing this and how is it different? BTW, I already get some cashback from Google Checkout too...
So I tried Live Product Search, it currently looks dead. Is this not the URL?
http://search.live.com/products/
Search for any product, even clicking on their 'sample product searches' you get no results.
Impressive.
Hmm. Nope, not worth the hassle.
Interesting, that.
throw new NoSignatureException();
That one thing is loyalty, ok brand loyalty I guess. However for myself I use it because it's a no nonsense approach from Google, and you can trust Google to give you the results you should get. Would you trust MS to give it you straight if they could make a dollar off you?
Also the biggest thing is I am loyal to Google because of the good they have done for OSS, being a (fairly) good net citizen, and trying on the whole to do the right thing.
That to me is worth way more than a few $ off a book, that in reality you could probabily get cheaper elsewhere.
To my mind, this smells of utter desperation on Microsofts part.
http://www.writeitfor.us - Writing IT for the IT generation.
Wow.
This is the first time a goatse troll made me laugh.
Just imagine... how much would MS have to pay you to click on a goatse link?
How much would you want them to pay you for the goatse links you've already clicked on?
Ignore this signature. By order.
Maybe they could call it PaysForSure after their successful and reliable music service.
This sounds a bit desperate. Like a kid paying
to get a date for the prom.
Marketing in general has standards
To quote a senior marketing researcher from the biggest player in the US:
Is teaching kids to be better naggers ethical? Well I don't know about that, but if we push more product then we've done our job
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
When my dad was a teenager, an ad popped up in the media which promised money to those who could pick the three most beautiful women in it. He won the prize money, but so did everyone. And the prize money was split into irrelevant amounts. It is obvious how the is going to work out. As more and more people start signing up for this scheme, the less money each of them get. MS hopes that at least some of the new users will stick to their search engine like mud thrown onto a wall. But suckers will still keep flocking in.
Heroes die once, cowards live longer.
The only way I can see that flying, is if people sign up their bank account information, so it directly pays.. however, no way in hell I'm giving up that information.
Hi, I Boris. Hear fix bear, yes?
One of the first internet portals called I'won has been paying customers to surf over ten years. They have periodic lotteries for prizes. You increase you chances by looking at more parts of the site as often as possible.
A software company?
A gaming company?
A services company?
An advertisement company?
This, ladies and gents, is called lack of focus.
Instead of concentrating on making desktop software better (by open sourcing it for example, thus becoming the major player and market leader in services for the industry) they go all around the place like headless chickens:
Follow the next big thing!
PDAs? Windows Mobile!
MP3 players? Zune!
Google? Yahoo! er, bribe searchers!
in the meantime they abandon IE for who knows how long, and made mediocre products in the field that is actually profitable.
Talk about not keeping the eye in the ball....
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
And all of my friends hate me now.
--- these days, what with business and stuff, you gotta get your emails...
Thanks for the link. Just what I needed.
http://www.fatwallet.com/cash-back-coupons.php
frequency matters. it is $5 return on a few seconds, but it happens only twice or so every year.
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Attention Gold Farmers:
Microsoft will pay you to SEARCH!
A friend and I were discussing the other day what we would be willing to pay for Google if there were no Internet.
$25. A month. This was a consensus opinion for the group.
MSN search? Not so much.
Help stamp out iliturcy.