Apr 25, 2013 at 3:26pm ET by Amy Gesenhues

Bing is appealing to fans of daily deal sites with the launch of Bing Offers, a one-stop shop for online deals and coupons. Boasting one of the largest collections of local deals on the web, Bing Offers pulls deals from various partner sites. Users can search by business name, category or keyword to locate specific deals, or filter results by location or category to see offers for various products and services, including food, activity, health and fitness, beauty, travel and retail deals. While the announcement on the Bing Search Blog does not name specific deal providers, it does of [...]

Microsoft Says Goodbye To “Scroogled” Ad Campaign

Mar 4, 2013 at 9:36am ET by Greg Sterling

Microsoft's "Scroogled" ad campaign, which attacked Google over paid inclusion in shopping and Gmail over privacy, is coming to an end. KQED reports that Microsoft will stop TV, newspaper and social media ads promoting the Scroogled message: "That part is about finished," Stefan Weitz, Microsoft senior director of online services, said on Thursday. Microsoft launched the Scroogled campaign last November to attack Google's all-paid-inclusion shopping search results. Our stories below cover more about this: Bing Attacks Google Shopping With “Scroogled” Campaign, Forgets It’s Guilt [...]

Bing Shopping As A Poster Child For Consumer Confusion About Ads

Dec 7, 2012 at 9:00am ET by Danny Sullivan

Bing has been escalating its attacks against Google Shopping over consumer transparency since launching its "Scroogled" campaign just over a week ago. Well, consumer confusion is a serious issue. Indeed, Bing itself can be used to illustrate some of the problems consumers face at both Bing and Google. The day after Bing's campaign launched, I found the full-page ad to the right in my copy of the Wall Street Journal. A similar ad apparently ran in the New York Times. Meanwhile, at least one blogger has gotten a "Scroogled" t-shirt, and the official Bing blog has done two further anti-Goo [...]

Bing Attacks Google Shopping With “Scroogled” Campaign, Forgets It’s Guilty Of Same Problems

Nov 28, 2012 at 3:55pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Bing is attacking Google over its shift to a pay-for-play shopping search engine through a new "Scroogled" site, pledging that Bing has "honest search." Great campaign, if it were true. It's not. Bing itself does the same things it accuses Google of. It's also another indictment of how little the FTC is doing to protect consumers from "search results" they might not realize are ads. Google Shopping Goes All-Ads Earlier this year, Google changed to a "paid inclusion" or pay-to-play model of accepting listings for its Google Shopping site. Phased in over the summer, as of October 17, only merc [...]

The Big Roundup: Finding Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals & Specials

Nov 25, 2011 at 10:13am ET by Greg Sterling

We're already well into Black Friday. In many US stores the frenzy began last night at 10 pm or midnight (as opposed to the normal 4 am door-busting start time). People barely had time to overcome the sleep-inducing effects of L-tryptophan before getting out into the melee. And the word "melee" aptly describes the scene in a Southern California Wal-Mart store as one woman unleashed pepper spray on her fellow shoppers to prevent them from getting in her way. Today and for the next few days people will be using a wide range of tools and resources -- hopefully not pepper spray -- to help them [...]

Bing Makes Bid To Become Top Deals Destination

Sep 23, 2011 at 9:46am ET by Greg Sterling

When Bing launched deals several months ago its partner was deal aggregator The Dealmap, which was subsequently acquired by Google. That forced Microsoft to turn elsewhere for deals and today, as a result, we're seeing the launch of a new deals experience on mobile and the PC that pulls in content from a wide range of sources. The mobile deals experience hasn't really changed; you can see daily deals in your selected area, as well as deals "nearby" and also browse deals by category. It's available via the m.bing.com HTML5 site and Bing apps. There's a new more comprehensive online [...]

Bing Shopping Adds Faster Refinements, Sales & List Sharing

Aug 15, 2011 at 2:21pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Bing announced new features for their Shopping Search features. The features inluce: Refine Your Searches Faster Find Sale Prices Share Your Shopping Lists on Facebook Bing Shopping has added a form of Google Instant results for shopping refinements. Here is an example: You can also just filter by sales, see the screen shot below showing sales prices in red: Finally, you can build your shopping lists and share them on Facebook. Here is a video demo of how it works: Video: Bing Shopping: More Selection, Fewer Steps [...]

Bing Ups Ante In Social Search, Adds More Facebook “Likes” To Search Results

May 16, 2011 at 2:58pm ET by Greg Sterling

Bing is taking the next step in its self-conscious evolution from "search engine" to "decision engine." Perhaps we could equally use the term "conversation engine," as Bing begins to emphasize social content and even tries to enable connections between people through the deeper integration of Facebook and "Likes" data. It isn't news that Bing is integrating the Facebook data; that was originally announced in October last year. Rather the news today is that Bing is entering a kind of "phase II" of the process, doing some more interesting and potentially useful things with Likes. According [...]

Bing Shopping Incorporates Natural Language Search

Mar 1, 2011 at 4:09pm ET by Pamela Parker

If you search for "cashmere sweaters under $100" on Bing or Bing Shopping, the search engine now understands what you mean, returning results for products in the category under the price point specified. Microsoft announced the ability to recognize price constraints today, describing the innovation as "a small step in our journey to make search friendlier to natural language queries." Similar searches on Google Product Search don't return appropriate results. So far, the change will only apply to prices, and only to U.S.-based searches. However, it does work for mobile searches. Mobile s [...]

Bing Shopping Adds List Sharing Through Facebook

Dec 1, 2010 at 9:55am ET by Greg Sterling

One of the things that people do with their smartphones in stores is take pictures of products and send them to friends and family for feedback and advice. A version of that process has been developing in parallel online through the numerous "social shopping" sites and has existed forever in good old-fashioned email. Now Bing has added a "shopping list" module to Bing Shopping to enable one or more products to be captured and shared through Facebook. You can create the shopping list by checking a box next to each product you want to capture and share: Products will then appear in the [...]

Search Tips For Black Friday & Cyber Monday

Nov 24, 2010 at 11:56am ET by Greg Sterling

Ladies and gentlemen open your wallets -- and start your smartphones. The holiday shopping season is upon is. This year more than ever there are scores of sites, apps and online tools to direct you to the right product at the best price. It can all be a bit overwhelming in fact. Below I've tried to highlight some resources that may be helpful as you search for gifts over the long weekend and beyond. But before we get started let me first ask the naming gods to next year revisit and banish "Cyber Monday" from the tech lexicon -- or dare I say "texicon." And maybe we need yet a third day (or [...]

Bing Shopping Now Free To Merchants

Aug 2, 2010 at 8:58am ET by Barry Schwartz

Brian Smith reports that Bing Shopping is now free for merchants to submit their product feeds and obtain traffic from Bing. I tried to find information from Bing on this, but I guess it is not published yet. We know Microsoft officially dropped the Cashback as of July 30, 2010. Brian said dropping Cashback and going free on August 1st is Microsoft's plan to compete closer to Google's free product search. Microsoft does have some advertising information on Bing Shopping over here and merchants can submit a form to be included. In addition, if you download the PDF from Microsoft, it d [...]

Bing Cashback: Don’t Leave Your Piggybank On The Table

Jul 18, 2010 at 9:19am ET by Mike Kujanek

As early as Fall 2008, Microsoft set off on a crusade to openly evangelize what would become "Bing Cashback" with strategic agency partners and retail advertisers alike. The consumer rewards program was built to incent online shoppers with the purpose of influencing search behavior to gain repeat visitors and generate loyalty. Microsoft's goal would ultimately be to drive increased search revenue and market share. As an extension to adCenter search and Shopping listings, Bing Cashback held far-reaching promises of increased scale and brand enhancement for advertisers. It provided a unique l [...]

Bing Drops Cashback Program

Jun 4, 2010 at 2:25pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Microsoft announced they are retiring the Bing Cashback program as of July 30, 2010. Cashback launched on May 21, 2008 as an attempt to increase market share for their search engine, back then named Live.com. Over the years, Microsoft claimed Cashback was successful in gaining momentum for the search engine. They even used TV commercials highlighting Cashback to drive even more awareness for the program. But, as Microsoft now admits, they "did not see the broad adoption that they had hoped for." So they are discontinuing the program, the last time a searcher can use it is up until [...]

Bing Shopping Redesign

Apr 9, 2010 at 8:57am ET by Barry Schwartz

The Bing Search Blog announced that Microsoft has redesigned parts of Bing Shopping. The changes include: Product categories listed on left side Product summaries all on one page include where to buy, user reviews, cashback percentage, product specifications. Reviews can be narrow down by filtering on star ratings or use the "opinion scorecard" Here is a video demo of the changes: [...]

Liveblog: Steve Ballmer Keynote At SMX West

Mar 2, 2010 at 11:27am ET by Matt McGee

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer makes his first address to the search marketing community today at SMX West in Santa Clara. Danny Sullivan will sit down with Ballmer for a "fireside chat" that will also include time for Q&A from members of the audience. NOTE: Microsoft has now posted a video and a transcript of the talk. Speaking of the audience, many of the big names in traditional media will be on hand to hear Ballmer talk about Microsoft's progress in search. And, did I mention that the keynote conversation is being streamed live on CNBC's Power Lunch program? It is. And if the conven [...]

Bing Maps Challenge: Try Silverlight Version, Maybe Win $100

Jan 22, 2010 at 10:31am ET by Greg Sterling

Microsoft wants people to download (or update Sliverlight) so they can use the new and improved Bing Maps. To create that incentive, as well as to get people to explore the new Bing Maps, Microsoft is offering chance to win a $100 gift card as part of the "Bing Maps Challenge." The challenge game takes users through a timed, multiple choice quiz with four detailed questions about New York that require exploration of specific locations and the use of Street Side imagery. Here's an example: "When you get to the museum, look up above the main entrance. What exhibit is being promoted over t [...]

Black Friday 2009: Bing Cashback Bumps, Users Searching For Deals

Nov 25, 2009 at 2:18pm ET by Elisabeth Osmeloski

It could be that the general state of the 2009 economy is fueling the increase in early search queries for "Black Friday" related terms, or it it could be that the retail industry as a whole have embraced the annual event as part of a clever marketing strategy to boost overall holiday sales. As you can see from the Google Trends data below, the increase in usage since the advent of "Black Friday" has grown exponentially. In 2009, consumers began flocking to the Web earlier than ever to search for Black Friday deals, although it's difficult to see in the graph below, the uptick does begin sligh [...]

Microsoft: Bing Cashback Price Discrepancies Are A Mistake

Nov 24, 2009 at 5:34pm ET by Matt McGee

In response to a report about pricing discrepancies in its Bing Cashback service, Microsoft says it has tools to prevent the problem from happening and the case in question was a mistake on the merchant's part. The Bountii blog wrote Monday about a pricing inconsistency for the Canon Vixia HV40 camcorder. In Bing Cashback, the price from retailer Butterfly Photo is listed as $758 with 2% cashback, for a final price of $742.84. But skipping Bing Cashback and going directly to the merchant's site leads to a price of $699. After becoming aware of the blog post, a Microsoft spokesperson blam [...]

Microsoft Now Promoting Cashback Program With TV Ads

Aug 31, 2009 at 9:03am ET by Barry Schwartz

TechCrunch reports Microsoft is continuing with the Bing TV commercials but this time promoting the Cashback program. Most recently, Bing doubled the Cashback rewards to drive more awareness to the program. That double reward increase was so successful on some sites that Microsoft had to pull the program four days early. Maybe TV commercials end up being cheaper than double rewards? Here is the ad: [...]

Get Our News, Everywhere!

Follow @sengineland

Got a tip? Tell us here!

Most Likes
Most Tweets
Comments

Our Stories Being Liked on Facebook

Search Engine Land Sponsors

Advertise With Us

Free Daily Search News Recap!

SearchCap is a once-per-day newsletter update - sign up below and get the news delivered to you!

Click to watch SMX conference video

Join us at an upcoming SMX event:

North America

SMX Advanced - June 11-12, 2013
SMX East - Oct. 1-3, 2013
SMX Social Media Marketing - Nov. 20-21, 2013
SMX West - March 11-13, 2014

EMEA

SMX Paris - June 6-7, 2013
SMX Stockholm - Oct. 14-15, 2013
SMX Milan - Nov. 7-8, 2013
SMX Israel - Jan. 2014
SMX Munich - March 25-26, 2014
SMX London - May 2014

APAC

SMX Sydney - April 2014

Search Engine Land produces SMX, the Search Marketing Expo conference series. SMX events deliver the most comprehensive educational and networking experiences - whether you're just starting in search marketing or you're a seasoned expert.