Slashdot Mirror
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."
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.
Yes. Steve Ballmer. He also throw a chair at me.
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.
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
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.
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.
Only ~$90 billion in market cap to go. Of course, Microsoft has just over 3x Google's $18 billion in revenue, so buying Microsoft would destroy the current price multiple on shares of Google.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
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
It might be a bad deal for Google though... MS is like the Titanic, big, and seemingly strong, however while the band is still playing it is sinking. MS has lost most if not all respect in the "real" IT world (AKA those of us who are not coding in Visual Basic) for a company that can innovate or produce stable products. Google on the other hand is going steadily up, and spending too much money to buy MS is just a bad idea, they might make some quick cash out of it, but other then that MS is a sinking ship.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
don't worry, there are people throwing stuff at ballmer too... he got egged
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.
... 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.