Microsoft Offers Live Search Users Cash Rewards

From DailyTech: It’s no secret that Microsoft is a distant third behind Google and floundering competitor Yahoo in the search engine business. With Google constantly expanding its online offerings, Microsoft has turned to tactics that either smack of desperation or perhaps of brilliance, depending on your perspective. Microsoft is in-effect paying users for their search engine traffic.

The tactic started with the acquisition of the unusual search/auction site Jellyfish.com last year. Jellyfish allows users to search for products. Each product has a commission associated with it, similar to the retail markup at stores such as Best Buy. However, Jellyfish turns around and gives users a percentage of that commission back as savings, as a reward for searching with it.

This way Jellyfish essentially gives users money for search advertisements and traffic, deposited straight to their PayPal account. The higher the commission percentage on similarly priced varieties of the same item, the higher the ranking in the search, as the customer will get more money back. The approach is not wholly new for Microsoft -- it already tried to pay off businesses for search traffic.

In order to more fully promote its new Windows Live Cashback program, part of its new campaign aimed at seizing web traffic, Microsoft was offering big cashback rewards. Users could sign up for a Live account and in a limited time partnership with online auction site eBay receive a percentage of cashback on purchases. Customers received up to $250 on up to 6 purchases (this was recently increased from 3). The percentages were as high as 35 percent at one point through eBay’s site.

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