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Microsoft Cancels Bing Cashback Program

Posted by timothy on from the it-couldn't-last dept.

pjfontillas writes "Yusuf Mehdi, Senior Vice President of Microsoft's Online Audience Business Group, recently announced, 'One of the principles we have here at Bing is to constantly experiment and learn. We do this to ensure we are keeping pace with new social and technology trends, and can continue to deliver great value for our customers and advertisers. As part of this "test-and-learn" mentality, we will be retiring the Bing cashback feature, which means that the last day you can earn cashback will be July 30, 2010.' From the look of the comments, Microsoft has at least 35 saddened users. eWeek does a follow-up attempting to explain the situation in more detail."

80 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Bing by freefrag · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They had to pay people to use their search engine?

    1. Re:Bing by belmolis · · Score: 1

      And they thought people would like yet another rebate plan, where you don't see the rebate until weeks later? Even if the rebate is set up automatically and there's nothing that has to be sent in, I'd much rather not pay the extra in the first place and not have to keep track of rebates.

    2. Re:Bing by bob8766 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I didn't even see how it was getting paid to use Bing. I would search on Bing for a deal and find ones where I would have to wait for cash back.
      I'd then do the same search on Amazon or go directly to the store site and get offfered the same deal except the price was just lower by the amount that Bing was offering for a cashback.

      What's worse is that even when it was a little cheaper I'd go through a different site because I couldn't be bothered with signing up for the program, nor would I just make the purchase without signing up knowing that I was forfeiting the cashback deal.

      People like me are what really screw up corporate marketing campaigns.

    3. Re:Bing by symbolset · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Actually, to pretend to use their search engine to buy things. The Bing advertisers would tell you - no matter how you arrived at the product - at checkout time that you could get Bing cashback if you put in the Bing code. So you had to go find the thing on Bing to get the code.

      The basic dishonesty of this evolution didn't lend credibility to Bing with anybody involved.

      --
      Help stamp out iliturcy.
    4. Re:Bing by Cthefuture · · Score: 2, Informative

      That might be true for some stuff but for example when buying from Newegg the price is the same but you get the Bing discount. Also when doing Ebay.

      There are often sales of items and many of us use Cashback to make those deals even sweeter. It really is a discount in many cases. Actually, I have personally never seen what you are talking about where it's the same price with or without Cashback. Usually I find the cheapest price then use Cashback to make it even cheaper.

      --
      The ratio of people to cake is too big
    5. Re:Bing by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Interesting

      People like me are what really screw up corporate marketing campaigns.

      Really? Because I think you may have fallen right into it with your post just now. I'm a member of several forums covering some diverse topics and the one thing I have noticed several members in all forums over the past year jump in saying "Btw guys just realised with this website you can get bing cashback on this camera" This entire scheme doesn't give me the vibes of paying people to use the search engine, but rather getting people to talk about using it in various unrelated forums. Although I admit that you're talking about bing right now in a bing related post, but did you ever talk about bing outside of slashdot due to this marketing campaign?

      It seems to me a clever trick to get people to use Bing just to see what the savings may be. The people who probably never heard of Bing in the first place now must actually use the search engine. Some of them may like it and stay, some may have more sense.

    6. Re:Bing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The funny thing is that people here think that Bing or Microsoft actually paid anything or "paid" users to use Bing. Ebay, Amazon and all other stores and sites have affiliate programs. Bing just gave some of that affiliate money back to users it referred to those stores via Bing. The most funny thing is that as a huge traffic source, Bing got excellent commission rates. A much higher than what they gave back with the cash back program.

      But sure go on and continue the oh-so-funny joke about Bing "having to pay users to use their search engine".

    7. Re:Bing by Ecuador · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't know what sites you looked at, but this was never the case for large sites like newegg, buy.com, overstock etc. However, the greatest deal was the 20% (later dropped to 8%) cash back on ebay get it now purchases. I saved a lot of money with that and could never figure out how they could afford it. Plus, even if I loved the cash back thing, I would only visit bing to go to ebay through it - google was still my search engine, so they didn't gain anything by paying me. In all canceling the program seems to me an inevitable (and late) decision.

      --
      Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
    8. Re:Bing by poetmatt · · Score: 1

      yes, and nobody would use it other than to use the cashback. Thus = watch bing marketshare drop quite quickly.

      This is where that 800M+ spent on search advertising came from.

    9. Re:Bing by fermion · · Score: 1
      This was my assumption. They jack up the prices and then give you back the money. It is the same everywhere. Amazon does this on free shipping items, $5 through them free shipping, $4 through someone else. It works out.

      I think MS was targeting the business user, those with expense accounts, or otherwise spending other peoples money. Buy an item on an expense account and pocket the difference. Like MS office, I think MS hoped that the work habits would transfer to home shopping. Of course people tend to be more careful with their own money, and this sounds a lot like a rebate, which is why I never use it. I want a simple clear price, and not have to go through a complicated formula.

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    10. Re:Bing by JackieBrown · · Score: 1

      Plus, even if I loved the cash back thing, I would only visit bing to go to ebay through it - google was still my search engine, so they didn't gain anything by paying me.

      They took away from Google's referal bonus and received it themselves. So they did gain from it.

      Now, they get to use those numbers to push their ad engine and pretend that there are tons of users using bing.

    11. Re:Bing by misexistentialist · · Score: 1

      Ebay fees are high, but I doubt that it can kick back 35% in commissions. Microsoft has lost billions on its internet business; if they didn't use some of that money to bribe users they would just seem even more laughably incompetent.

    12. Re:Bing by dogmatixpsych · · Score: 1

      I never used Bing to search for deals. I always went to the site directly, added the product to the cart, closed the window, then went back to the site through Bing's cashback program. That way I never get artificially raised prices (I always double-checked) and get cashback. I've saved hundreds of dollars using Bing's cashback. The best was buying giftcards (to stores I normally shop at like Sam's Club) on eBay and getting >15% cashback. That way I saved money on normal purchases.

    13. Re:Bing by rtb61 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You really don't get it do you. Just like all the other B$ (lies for profit) marketing tools, everyone except the youngest or the most foolish have become accustomed to them. Any time I see cashback, my immediate thought is, yeah yeah, charge me extra and give some of it back, eventually 'er' maybe and, more often than not the product is going be crappy because they "need" gimmicks to sell it. So immediate reaction to product is negative, just put the offer out of consideration and when comparing it to competitors ignore the cash back .

      Marketing is now down to factual product claims and warranty conditions, as well a consumer reported background on the companies actual ability to fulfil claims about their products and to provide real warranty services. Then I check the price and see often I will have to pay that price again, upgrade B$, end of warranty auto breakdown features, missing buts and pieces actually required to make use of the product and of course cost of using the product normal cost as well as bugs and defects costs.

      It is commonly accepted corporate marketing tactics to lie about the product, to lie about it faults when the occur and, to blame customers for faulty products. In turn in is now commonly accepted consumer practice to accept most marketdroids are lying ass hats, just give me the technical details and urinate on your company board not me. Truth in advertising what a joke, it is about time a law was enacted to force companies to only make claims about provable product qualities and to institute random audits of the claims with full consumer refunds plus costs when those claims are proved false.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    14. Re:Bing by Ecuador · · Score: 1

      What do you mean? You use google to go to ebay? I guess you don't like to use the address bar?
      When I shop from newegg, ebay etc I go directly, I would assume it is the most common procedure. If I want to compare stores & prices I use specialized sites like retailerratings.com, pricegrabber etc.
      Oh, and the ebay referal bonus could not possibly amount to anything close to the 8%-20% range that bing was giving.

      --
      Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
    15. Re:Bing by icebraining · · Score: 1

      Most people I know don't write addresses anymore. They either have a bookmark or write the site's name in the search engine.

      --
      Dilbert RSS feed
    16. Re:Bing by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      Most people I know don't write addresses anymore. They either have a bookmark or write the site's name in the search engine.

      I bet that they've done away with that old, humanoid overrated feature of being able to walk and chew gum at the same time too.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  2. 35 saddened users by socsoc · · Score: 3, Funny

    From the look of the comments, Microsoft has at least 35 saddened users.

    Snarky remark in TFS slamming MS, check.

    1. Re:35 saddened users by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I used Bing cash back all the time... it's the only time I used Bing.

      Bing cash back deals are huge on Fatwallet because sometimes they go up to 10%.

      Back in the day, when bing was first released. They had up to 30% off certain Buy It Now items on eBay. I'd just go through and buy gift cards. $100 gift card for $70. I got my first Canon SLR at the same time. 13 months later I sold it for more than I actually paid for it (after cash back).

      So there was a bit more than 35 users. People will use your crappy service just to save $1.

    2. Re:35 saddened users by inKubus · · Score: 1

      I second that. If you searched for "Silver" at one point, ebay would come up with silver. They had a 28% off buy it now and you could buy silver coins or buillion at market rates with low shipping and get 28% back up to $2000 from Bing. It was a nice deal while it lasted ;)

      --
      Cool! Amazing Toys.
  3. Los Links by yoghurt · · Score: 1

    Bing, otra vez.

    --
    Yoghurt
  4. Duh! by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 5, Informative

    MS tried the same thing with their "passport" single-sign-on-shopping system back in the dotcom boom days. It didn't work then either. People only used it for the money and ignored it otherwise. You would think they could learn from their own mistakes. I'm surprised it took them 2 years to figure it out this time around, it must have been a massive cash suck the way people like those on fatwallet have been milking it. Funny thing about that - the only reason I even knew about bing cashback is because of fatwallet. Whatever other means of advertising they used, it sure didn't make it to my ears.

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    1. Re:Duh! by gad_zuki! · · Score: 1

      >MS tried the same thing with their "passport" single-sign-on-shopping system back in the dotcom boom days. It didn't work then either.

      Now I have 100 different logins. OpenID doesnt seem to be going anywhere either. Err, victory?

    2. Re:Duh! by rpillala · · Score: 1

      Somehow I still think of Microsoft as Bill Gates. I don't know exactly how true that is anymore. If it's pretty much true, I'm not surprised that they couldn't learn from their mistakes.

      The Gates Foundation was on a kick for a couple of years where they promoted "small high schools." Small high schools have fewer than 500 students. They took existing schools and broke them into smaller pieces, on the assumption that the smaller communities would lead to better relationships and therefore better achievement. This didn't turn out to be true.

      For example, with such a small population, they weren't able to offer advanced classes because there wasn't sufficient interest. If they used to have 1500 kids, and 18 of them wanted AP Spanish, now each school had 6 who wanted it and they couldn't run a class for just 6. Anyway, how did they respond to data that showed student achievement stayed flat or went down? They ignored it.

      --
      When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
    3. Re:Duh! by icebraining · · Score: 1

      http://img.skitch.com/20091006-nb6ashr9ge691gwqatrr9rgtg5.jpg

      --
      Dilbert RSS feed
    4. Re:Duh! by rpillala · · Score: 1

      Whoops I'm years behind. Actually I know he's not CEO anymore but is he still influential there or has he left it completely behind?

      --
      When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
    5. Re:Duh! by electrosoccertux · · Score: 1

      MS tried the same thing with their "passport" single-sign-on-shopping system back in the dotcom boom days. It didn't work then either. People only used it for the money and ignored it otherwise. You would think they could learn from their own mistakes. I'm surprised it took them 2 years to figure it out this time around, it must have been a massive cash suck the way people like those on fatwallet have been milking it. Funny thing about that - the only reason I even knew about bing cashback is because of fatwallet. Whatever other means of advertising they used, it sure didn't make it to my ears.

      The problem was the execution. If they wanted people to actually use it, then they needed to make the cashback completely random. Use it for a month and then perhaps you get a 12% cash back offer for a store of your choice. But that might NOT happen as well. So you'd have to keep using it until it did happen. As those familiar with the most effective methods of operant conditioning (psychology) will understand, this "random" nature (which mimics the "gambling" reward) is by far the most addictive.

      So it would work like this--
      1). user uses google.
      2). user decided they want to buy a laptop. But, they can't just go to bing and search for "tigerdirect" and get 12.1% cash back.
      3). Instead, they have to begin using bing regularly for all their searches. Perhaps they set up a hotmail email account too.
      4). Microsoft tracks this, and randomly starts putting cashback links on the side when they search for something like "netbook" or "laptop"
      5). ???
      6). Profit! Microsoft has successfully gotten users to try out their search engine, daily, for several weeks. Long enough for them to figure out what they like/don't like about the search results.

  5. Can't have Muslim Socialist w/o MS! by emeade · · Score: 3, Funny

    Is MS a secret muslim socialist, racist, america hater who blew up an oil well in the Gulf? Hey, I'm just asking questions!

  6. Picking on an autistic kid by synthesizerpatel · · Score: 1, Funny

    I'm 35 years old, I've been fed up with Microsoft since about Windows XP SP2 although previously not much of a fan before that.

    But at this point it's just like you guys are picking on the autistic kid.

    We get it. Microsoft sucks. Give it back it's helmet.

    1. Re:Picking on an autistic kid by grcumb · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm 35 years old, I've been fed up with Microsoft since about Windows XP SP2 although previously not much of a fan before that.

      But at this point it's just like you guys are picking on the autistic kid.

      We get it. Microsoft sucks. Give it back it's helmet.

      I don't know about the rest of the world, but I'll leave Microsoft alone when it starts leaving me alone.

      Microsoft may be autistic, but that's not why we pick on it. We pick on it because it's also crazy and occasionally a little scary. But mostly we pick on it because we all know it's the crazy, scary autistic kid, but nobody else seems to see the problem in that.

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
    2. Re:Picking on an autistic kid by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 1

      When they leave me alone then I'll leave them alone. I don't expect my non-MS browsers having their default search engine switched without my permission.

  7. meh, they canceled it a long time ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I signed up when I was going to buy a big LCD TV.

    Got all the confirmation emails, or so I thought.

    Signed onto Bing, "searched", bought the TV, never got the refund. Poked the seller to no avail. No way to poke Microsoft.

    It was only about a $75 rebate. Still got a great price with free shipping, but I could have found that on Google too.

  8. Damn. by AMDinator · · Score: 1

    I made a little over $130 on this program since I always used it when I built computers for friends and family. Fortunately my new CC has rewards but Newegg isn't a member- I guess I'll take my business to Tiger Direct from now on.

  9. I'm Sad by LearnToSpell · · Score: 4, Funny

    They've given me just under a thousand bucks over the last year and a bit, including buying a Wii and an N900 (20% off each). It was easy to use, I didn't have any problems, and it's a shame they won't send me money to complete my shopping trips anymore, after I found what I needed with Google.

    --
    Haida Manga
    1. Re:I'm Sad by Albanach · · Score: 1

      A bit of a 'meet too' reply, but I've also had a similar amount from them.

      Can't say I'm surprised the program is ending, though I am disappointed. I'm still not sure how much Microsoft actually shelled out other than in admin costs, I suspect the promotions themselves may have been paid for by retaillers.

    2. Re:I'm Sad by Etherized · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Indeed. This program is solely responsible for me ever using ebay. They say it's discontinued due to poor adoption, or some such thing; I think adoption was quite rapid amongst people looking to save money and get the absolute best prices possible. The problem is, as an advertiser, those are the people you're least interested in.

    3. Re:I'm Sad by misexistentialist · · Score: 1

      Me too.

    4. Re:I'm Sad by bigngamer92 · · Score: 1

      I saved a little money using it. Waited 2 months to get a $68 discount on a $850 laptop from Tiger. Could have just gotten it on Amazon through a referral program (for the guy in my Sig) and payed $810, but meh. Ultimately not enough money to make it worth it for me.

      --
      Common Sense
  10. Cliche by hilather · · Score: 4, Funny

    Microsoft couldn't pay me to use bing. Literally.

  11. Re:And no one cared by Cthefuture · · Score: 1

    Nobody uses Bing but tons of us use Cashback. I use it for nearly every single thing I buy online if I can. It's not always a lot, like Newegg is usually only 2% but it's better than nothing. Ebay usually gives good Cashback on Buy It Now stuff and I have used that to save lots (like 30% off the CPU I'm using right now). I have saved hundreds of dollars since they started the Cashback thing.

    Sad to see it go. It is one of the primary discounts us bargain hunters use.

    --
    The ratio of people to cake is too big
  12. Re:And no one cared by v1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've actually seen a (one) user with Bing as their home page. Not sure what would cause that to happen.

    your search engine of choice?
    google. check
    yahoo. check
    dogpile. really?
    bing. what?

    --
    I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
  13. bye bing by ZeroNullVoid · · Score: 1

    I guess I have no incentive to use Bing anymore to get stuff I was going to get without the cashback....

    It's a shame there have not been any ebay bing's greater than 8% in a while or I would use them more....

    I never really understood their motivation behind cash-back, especially with many sites having a discounted price for non-bing users (scam, I know) but I did appreciate the ebay buy it now discounts....

    MS has now removed the only motivation to use their service in my eyes.

  14. Re:And no one cared by Beyond_GoodandEvil · · Score: 1

    At work a computer recently got IE 8 installed so every time the someone runs IE a dialog box comes up and says, something like, yahoo was the default search engine, but now it's bing. Since no one uses this computer to search the web it has remained like that.

    --
    I laughed at the weak who considered themselves good because they lacked claws.
  15. Microsoft doesn't get advertizing by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Almost all their recent TV ads are as lame as hell. I'm watching and thinking, "What the hell are they talking about? Is this Random Night?". Then they mention the name of the product, such as Bing or Windows 7.

    In one ad, there's a guy sitting in a college class, then suddenly he's naked, then he's a caveman at a business meeting, then a naked caveman. WTF city. I seriously expected them to say, "Windows 7 and Bing will together help you locate better LSD".

    Please go back to Gates and Seinfeld wiggling their asses together. At least I know which end I'm looking at.
           

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:Microsoft doesn't get advertizing by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 1

      I liked the Seinfeld ads tbh. Not that they were really going to change my mind I didn't mind watching them.

    2. Re:Microsoft doesn't get advertizing by CAIMLAS · · Score: 1

      I haven't seen the ad you speak of (serious WTF city, if that's true), but I have seen a theme of several ads. This:

      Almost all their recent TV ads are as lame as hell.

      Does not hold true.

      The ones I'm thinking of are the ones where they're basically 'hyping' Windows 7: "get things done faster" or some such tagline. They're basically selling the new 'Run' bar/dialog which is, IMO, the single best feature of W7. It really does as advertised, and the ads are good (largly because they're also educational to W7 users).

      --
      ~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
    3. Re:Microsoft doesn't get advertizing by guyminuslife · · Score: 1

      I do not know this feature of which you speak, unless you are referring to something that was also in Vista.

      --
      I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
  16. It was a scam by rm999 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I and several other people I know used bing a lot for about a week in late 2008. At the time, Microsoft was literally offering 25-35% off any buy-it-now item on ebay (I'm pretty sure from their own pocket, no way they were making 25% off those purchases).

    I bought a new car stereo, camera lens, laptop, and several gifts. I saved over 500 dollars. Then, like a month later, I saw a news release where Microsoft showed off that the number of Bing users had doubled or something over the holiday period. They probably used this to gain traction in advertising and increase their collaboration with companies like Apple.

    They literally paid people to use bing over a month-long period to pad some statistics! I wonder if it was worth the 500 dollars they handed me.

    1. Re:It was a scam by inKubus · · Score: 2, Informative

      Google Checkout was giving cash discounts and free shipping for a while. It's nothing very new. But yeah, it didn't convince me to use Bing. Although I do use it on the iPhone, I find their maps are much more accurate than the built-in Google maps. Sometimes Google would put me miles away from where I was when using the location feature. I've used them on Blackberry also with AT&T and it sucked as well, so it could just be AT&T location services. But Bing has always worked, and it also has the voice query which is really very good, better than Google's as well. It just seems to know what I'm looking for whereas Google takes a few tries. But the app is dog slow ;) I wish I could go back to my Verzion, say what you will about VZW, their cell navigator is awesome.

      --
      Cool! Amazing Toys.
    2. Re:It was a scam by pz · · Score: 1

      I look at Bing.com -- the main page -- almost every day. Once. The background images they put up are at worst good, usually excellent, and at times breath-taking. (The tool-tip factoids are dumb, though.)

      Then I go to Google to actually get work done.

      --

      Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
    3. Re:It was a scam by clifyt · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Of course it was a scam, Microsoft screwed more people out of money than anyone will ever know and any time someone complains on their forums too much, the message disappears. Or they claim the payment was paid and the comment is closed...and then the user is banned where they can't complain any more.

      I've had a dozen purchases canceled.

      I made certain to check prices with and without Bing. A lot of times, if you used Bing, the price was jacked up...if you looked at the price elsewhere with a second browser you'd get a better deal dollar to dollar. If you counted the cash back, it was still not that much better, but I'm all for delayed gratification even if it is only $5.

      Sadly, more often than not, Microsoft would send notes saying that the purchase was not made correctly and the cash back would be canceled. They claimed a few times that the product was not really a cashback item...even when there was a banner advertisement FROM THE RETAILER on the side with the specific reward. Or they will say that the purchase never went through. OR just not respond at all.

      Every time you'd go through proper channels, and they'd request information -- screenshots or otherwise -- it was always someone with a script. If you managed to get something escalated, the support person would ask for the same information the next time you asked, and if you said you sent it, they'd say that apparently the issue was closed since you didn't send it. or throw out a THE RETAILER DETERMINED IT WAS A 37B ISSUE (or something like that, of which the issue had NOTHING to do with the terms of service quoted).

      I tried using this service, and for 2 months it looked like I was getting about $300 back...and I lost all but $20 of this about 60 days after the purchases. Long enough to keep using the system thinking I was getting something and ended up getting scammed...

      Microsoft scammed too many people with this Bing...they knew their retailers were abusing this and went along with it to get users. I will never use their service regardless of how good it may every be. On some things it was better than google, but you couldn't pay me at this point to touch their shit...it just made me realize how bad I hated Microsoft in the past and realized they haven't changed...

  17. Re:I walk among you by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 4, Funny

    4/10. You lose 2 point for delusions of grandeur(God complex), 1 point for excessive length(does every line have to be double-spaced?), and 3 points for lack of offensiveness.

    Please resubmit with a few racial slurs or a Mormon explanation of the fate of black people.

  18. Bing! Should just buy Flooz... by Klinky · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...after all that has become the defacto currency on the Internet... right? right?

  19. Re:And no one cared by Peet42 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I've actually seen a (one) user with Bing as their home page.

    I think I saw that on television! It was something like CSI, and I thought "that's the least realistic thing they've ever shown..."

  20. Yeah, but the cashback was often your own money by aklinux · · Score: 4, Informative

    Those 35 disappointed users must have forgotten how several of the merchants that signed up to give the Bing discounts could afford to do so. Show up with a Bing cookie and the price went up. http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/11/24/0112201/Bing-Cashback-Can-Cost-You-Money

    1. Re:Yeah, but the cashback was often your own money by electrosoccertux · · Score: 1

      Only with ebay. When I bought my netbook, it was the same price between newegg and TigerDirect (the cashback store). Saved me $50.

  21. Club Bing still around by LoverOfJoy · · Score: 1

    There's still Club Bing. They give you points for playing word games (that do searches on words you enter). Those points can be traded in for prizes. Since I started playing I think in October I've earned a book, 2 dvds, a water bottle, a magellan car gps, and a stressball, with an electric shaver is on the way. I'm about to redeem points for a juicer and a toaster oven. I know a number of people get xbox 360 games and controllers and sell them.

    1. Re:Club Bing still around by Killer+Orca · · Score: 1

      I used to do that for 360 controllers, I logged in a little while ago to see what it was like, they had jacked up the point values of many things substantially. I know people traded ways to get points quicker, because if you did it their way it was practically a full-time job and a minimum wage one at that.

    2. Re:Club Bing still around by LoverOfJoy · · Score: 1

      That's true. You definitely wouldn't want to quit your day job for it. I'd really only recommend it if you enjoy word games or typing anyway. I tend to do it when I need to unwind anyway. Even then, I often don't bother getting the max 1000 points per day if I get bored or have other things to do.

  22. Nice while it lasted, but not surprising... by John+Pfeiffer · · Score: 1

    You had to imagine this was going to happen, everyone I knew was using Bing for the sole purpose of getting cashback. I'd search for something on Bing (The old standby was 'cheap ps3') and then follow the link to eBay and get xx% cashback on my BiN purchases. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

    I don't know what that bob8766 guy way up above is talking about, I'm pretty sure he's either making that crap up or is just ignorant. Because I never saw anything like that from retailers (Also, that sounds like it'd be of fairly dubious legality!) and certainly not on eBay!

    When I first tried it a couple years back, they had something ridiculous like 25% cashback on eBay, capped at $200 per purchase with a max of 3 purchases in like 90 days or something. So I got $200 cashback on my Cintiq 21UX, making it an even better deal. (Not as good a deal as the crazy scammer people who were doing stuff like buying 8 $100 bills 3 times and getting $600 free...)

    This year, it was down to like 8% cashback on eBay and 1-5% on lots of big-name online stores, apparently without a cap on the number of qualifying purchases... So I offered to do all my family's tax refund shopping. :) Got something like $100 back on my little sister's new laptop and electric guitar, $80 back on my new DSLR, $40 back on my NEO-GEO arcade cabinet, and $80 back on the 8 1.5tb HDDs I got to start my new RAID array.

    I actually got instant cashback on the HDDs, so that was nice, but I really liked suddenly having an extra couple hundred bucks two months later. :D

    Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. So long Bing, and thanks for all the free money!

    --

    Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
  23. What is Bing again? by SaidinUnleashed · · Score: 1

    Google really can't tell me much about it, and it takes forever if I try to go there.

    --
    Shiny. Let's be bad guys.
  24. Cashback + ebay was serious savings by assemblerex · · Score: 1

    I was saving 8% on all transactions and getting ebay rewards at the same time. I will miss it greatly.

  25. Re:And no one cared by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    my blackberry from verizon search suddenly changed to bing with no way to undo it. so i undid my blackberry.

  26. Of Course They Did by weston · · Score: 1

    Jump-starting the use of your service through a glorified referral program is a solid idea, but eventually, you want to be something more than that, particularly when it comes to search.

    --
    Tweet, tweet.
  27. Re:And no one cared by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 1

    I think something in Windows or Mozilla (in the case of Firefox) is causing it. My work machine ended up, without my intervention set to Bing as the search engine. I put it back and added Bing to my hosts file. Mysteriously Bing got removed from my hosts file but at least my search selection (Google) didn't go back to Bing again. This then happened on my home machine and it has happened to everyone else at work whether they use IE or Firefox.

    The thing is most people end up typing Google's URL in or seraching for Google through Bing. So despite the fact they are too stupid to put it back they're still using Google.

  28. Just as unsustainable as Google cash back by kriston · · Score: 2, Informative

    Just as unsustainable as Google cash back was back a few Christmas seasons ago, where I was awarded $20 for every purchase transaction for no apparent reason. I will enjoy my $280 and $320 dual-core, wide-screen laptops courtesy of Bing.com, too. *sniff*

    --

    Kriston

  29. Re:And no one cared by Prof.PatPending · · Score: 1

    I've found one thing that Bing does better than Google, image searches. I was trying to find a picture that someone in a forum had described (but couldn't find) and I tried looking for it with Google. No dice, a ton of unrelated stuff as usual. Then, just for the halibut, I tried Bing. Came up on the first page. After that I've tried it with various other image searches, and Bing always came through. For any other types of searching though, Google is usually better.

    --
    WARNING: I cannot be help responsible for the above, as apparently my cats have learned how to type.
  30. Re:slashdot - worse then fox news by symbolset · · Score: 1

    I guess it depends on your point of view. For me for the last decade reading the mainstream tech press has been all about Microsoft spin detection. Of course now that we have the Comes collection we know why: Microsoft is all over the influencing mindshare thing, influencing "analysts" like Rob Enderle and Maureen O'Gara by funding their "research" or feeding them pre-release gems to make them seem prescient, paying for "studies" by IDC, Gartner and the rest to buy their results, advertising in publications that print favorable articles and so on. These things are all now a part of the official public record. Even here on slashdot it's pretty easy to tell the astroturfers from the people who are giving their real opinion and whether they're ignorant fools influenced by mindshare or cynical IT pros with long experience. The most beautiful illustration of this was the Vista threads where the number of paid slashdot bloggers must have numbered in the hundreds and their reality denial was absolute.

    Anybody can scan this very thread for AC comments and make a list of Microsoft talking points. Then they can index those against the registered members and find out who's spouting the company's line and who isn't. If you can come up with a pro-Microsoft point of view that isn't echoed by three AC's, you might have something interesting - otherwise you're just repeating what you heard. Every Microsoft thread for the last five years is the same. "When Linux and OS-X are as popular as Windows they will have viruses too" is one of my favorite indicators of turfness. If you've posted this gem you deserve to be dismissed as an idiot until you've recanted. I'm pretty sure a scientific analysis of this phenomenon is publication-worthy if anybody's looking for a paper to write.

    That crap might play on PC World (though you don't see it as much any more in the articles). Even on PCWorld and CNET and other mainstream press the comments are now mostly insightful, interesting and dismissive of Microsoft's efforts as they could possibly be. Even with paid bloggers and funded analysts Microsoft can't defeat the basic truths that their ability to provide innovation ended more than a decade ago. The world has changed. The value of classical reportage has diminished considerably. The vast majority of Internet content that people read isn't the reportage, it's the comments where individuals give their own experience, insight and opinion - not for pay but for the self satisfaction of being right the vast majority of the time. It's a self-reward, self-actualization game and even Microsoft's blogger budget can't overcome an entire world of bloggers disgusted with Microsoft products who want a future where they get new stuff that works.

    --
    Help stamp out iliturcy.
  31. I'm glad by M3wThr33 · · Score: 1

    It seemed like 2/3 of the posts on bargain hunting sites were focused around using this to buy stuff, and it made shopping online a real chore to make sure it went through and to wait to get the money back later. There was always an immense guilt if you didn't use it and I spent too much time crunching numbers.

  32. Re:And no one cared by jcombel · · Score: 1

    i did honestly try to switch to bing when it came out. i'm a fan of breaking up any monopoly by voting with my dollar and opinion.

    but, yeah, the bing results were just too wacky. i'm sure there was a way to search that would probably produce the results i wanted, but it seems like google always thought how i did, when i would go looking for things. either that, or after all this time, i am trained to search on google to get the results i want.

  33. Bob and Bing have now retired. by NicknamesAreStupid · · Score: 1

    Actually, they are both dead, which is too bad. I loved their Road to Morocco. Needless to say, they both lived longer than Microsoft.

  34. Re:And no one cared by Kakari · · Score: 4, Informative

    Perhaps your IT department pushed IE7/8 with an automated installation script so that it 'just worked' rather than coming up with a post-install setup wizard. Firefox could then have grabbed your search engine default. If you muck with your hosts file Windows defender will flag it as a 'potential hosts file hijack' and, again depending on your IT department, may have set it to automatically clean it. Hope that helps with the mystery (or at least leads to new ones :) !

  35. Re:And no one cared by Rolaulten · · Score: 1

    Check out the greesemonky script 'Disable Text Ads' - it removes most (a few things get around it, if I remember right) of those fun hazards to mousing over the browser window.

  36. In the UK... by DrScotsman · · Score: 1

    ...we have many cashback sites that give you a cut of the money from you clicking their affiliate links, usually a percentage of the amount you spend. There are many of them so it's clearly a viable business model, and as a customer it's brilliant. I've got the impression that Bing worked differently and I've got the impression that in the US you don't have cashback sites like we do, am I correct?

  37. Would NOW be a good time to remind people... by TVmisGuided · · Score: 1

    ...that in the Chinese, "bing" means poison?

    --
    All the world's an analog stage, and digital circuits play only bit parts.
  38. Remember the iwon.com ads? by dpbsmith · · Score: 1

    When was it? They used to advertise heavily on TV. It positioned itself as a search service, and the pitch was that every time you used it for a search, you were automatically getting entered for free into a sweepstakes. The obnoxious ad showed a "plain-folks" lady, presumably at work, asking sotto voce "If I use it at work and I win, does my boss get the money?" and the announcer saying enthusiastically "No, you get the money," and the lady replying "Good to know."

    Of course I tried it, and the free sweepstakes feature was marred by the fact that it couldn't find its behind with both hands and a flashlight.

    It still exists, but seems to have positioned itself as "Play games! Earn coins! Win prizes." The word "search" does not even appear on its home page, although it is apparently possible to perform a genuine Google search from the site, while, I suppose, accruing infinitesimal chances of obtaining something of value--I'm too lazy to figure it out--at http://www1.iwon.com/home/search/search_simple/

    --

    "How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!

  39. Re:And no one cared by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I've actually seen a (one) user with Bing as their home page. Not sure what would cause that to happen.

    I use it intermittently for privacy concerns about google's data collection habits. Big deal.

  40. Thanks, Captain Obvious by sean.peters · · Score: 1

    It seems to me a clever trick to get people to use Bing just to see what the savings may be. The people who probably never heard of Bing in the first place now must actually use the search engine.

    Wow, thanks for explaining that one. Although that was the expressed purpose of the cashback plan, I probably wouldn't have gotten it without this insightful post.

  41. Simply put - BCB was more money in my pocket... by hadesan · · Score: 1

    By using a combination of key words (a bunch from http://www.slickdeals.net/) on bing.com (especially during the holiday season), I was able to save between 5% to 30% on a bunch of items. I knew M$ was trying to buy results and did not care - $1500 cash back in addition to more from rebates and sometimes coupons which worked with cash back is more money in my pocket....

    As for the person who says it costs more to buy thru bing - I don't think so - there are some items which go on sale at specific merchants and then become awesome deals with high BCB percentages... some recent purchases: i7 980X for $780 delivered, X58 Classified 3-way SLI for $321 (includes $30 rebate), 8% on everything purchased from ebay, LCD TVs, Canon EOS 7D combo deal, newegg deals, etc. - the program has saved me a lot of money since November of 2009. Wish I had used it when it first came out.

    Check out slickdeals site and you will see the posts which people have made to help people save money on all sorts of items... Yesterday it was 30% off your purchase from endless shoes (Amazon's shoe site). There are good deals to be had if you know what other places are charging.

  42. Re:And no one cared by jcombel · · Score: 1

    on the topic at hand, ms is not a monopoly. i can't think of any situation where i could call the company as a whole, or divisions of it, "corrupt."