Microsoft just announced Live Search instant cashback rewards. This instant reward currently only applies to items purchased at eBay. If you make a purchase at eBay, using Live Search Cashback, you should see the rewards instantly in your PayPal account. Yes, you won't have to wait 60 days to see the money. Clearly, having instant cashback rewards with all their partners is something we would love to see. But for now, having eBay give you instant cash back is really nice to have. What about all the past rewards pending 60 day approval via eBay? Well, I checked one of my orders and I [...]

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Microsoft's Live Search Cashback program was reportedly down much of the day on Black Friday. This caused major concerns for customers who were excited to get large discounts on the day. In addition, TechFlash reports many customers purchased items from HP, expecting to receive 40% cash back rewards from Microsoft, only to see 3% show up after purchasing. Between Microsoft's Cashback having major uptime issue and not giving the rewards expected, Black Friday turned out to be a big bust for the program. Microsoft's Cashback program is honestly a great way to save money this holiday seas [...]

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Say it ain't so! LiveSide is reporting that Microsoft might be rebranding Live Search under the name, Kumo.com. Kumo.com is now registered under Microsoft and the name servers are now under SEARCH.LIVE.COM. Going to Kumo.com takes me to a page that says I do not have permission, but takes Microsoft employees to a special internal site. We heard Microsoft might be rebranding Live Search, once again, to a new brand. I never would have imagined it would be Kumo, which means "cloud" or "spider" in Japanese. I certainly hope they don't go this route, it just doesn't seem like this new nam [...]

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Ars Technica reports Microsoft is now trying a new way to incentivizes searches, this time in Canada. Microsoft launched Big Ticket Search to influence Canadians to search using Live Search. Canadians can win wide range of prizes, ranging from 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer SE to gift certificates. Every time a Canadian searches at Big Ticket Search, they have a chance to win one of the 1,488 prizes being offered. The prizes include: (2) 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer SE, value of $21,493 (1) $10,000 cash (1) Two Raptors 09-10 Season Tickets, value of $8,000 (5) Entertainment Centre, value [...]

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Microsoft Live Search Cashback launched with great expectation in some quarters that it would grow Microsoft's search share dramatically. That, so far, has failed to happen. But Microsoft says it is making progress toward its own more realistic goal of growing commercial search traffic over the long term, highlighting some new figures it says show progress in that area. Microsoft, according to a comScore study it commissioned to examine commercial search queries, referred almost 12 percent of commercial online transactions to web sites in the second quarter of 2008. Sounds gre [...]

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Continuing on with its strategy to build search share by gaining distribution partners, Microsoft has landed a deal to have its MSN Toolbar offered to anyone in the United States who downloads Java for Internet Explorer. The deal begins as of 8am Pacific time today. Those installing Java into Internet Explorer for the first time will get a prompt to download the MSN Toolbar and make Live Search the default choice for their browser, as part of the Java installation process. As for those with Java already, the next time a Java update is issued, they'll get the same prompts from the Jav [...]

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The LiveSide blog reports on screen captures showing that Microsoft may be testing rebranding Live Search as Windows Live Search. Here is a snippet from one of the screen captures: As you can see, Microsoft is testing adding in the "Windows" brand, before Live Search. \ Danny and I have often mocked Microsoft for changing their branding efforts for their web properties. I wish I was able to locate all the times Microsoft changed the name of their search engine. Off the top of my head, this is what I remember. Currently, we have Live Search. We had Microsoft Search, MSN Search, a [...]

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Microsoft's Live Search Cashback program has failed to grow the company's search traffic significantly (as I expected), so now it's try again time. Out officially today is SearchPerks, a program designed to be easier to use and more broadly targeted than Cashback. Microsoft says SearchPerks was already in the works and isn't a successor to Live Search Cashback. Run quietly as a small pilot program for the past nine months, Microsoft says, SearchPerks is now open to the first 1 million people in the United States who sign-up before the end of this year (Microsoft originally told m [...]

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Everyone is talking about the new Microsoft TV ad featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. paidContent.org called the ad pretty pathetic, Sam Diaz didn't get it, nor did I. TechCrunch got word from Microsoft that the ad is triggered to "engage consumers" and "spark conversation," which I guess it is doing. In any event, I saw the ad on TV last night. I tried to concentrate on it, but right after, I ask my wife, "what did that mean?" I enjoyed the commercial because it was Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld in a weird situation, doing "nothing," as Jerry is known for. But I did not get it. H [...]

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Microsoft has announced a "back-to-school" promotion for using Live Search through the Live Search cashback portal. The promotion adds up to "double the cashback rewards on millions of products from hundreds of participating retailers." Example promotions include 36-percent off select shoes at Foot Locker, 18-percent off on Lenovo ThinkPad, and 30 percent off on The North Face Doubletrack backpacks. Why is Microsoft doing this? Clearly to promote the engine and generate search queries. They have done this in the past and Microsoft may have realized some gains from those efforts. [...]

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"We didn't get to paid search first, and it turns out that's the best part of the market," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told Washington Post Editors as part of a meeting that explored a range of topics. Among other things, Ballmer discussed Microsoft's strategy and mission statement, why it aspires to be competitive in search, user privacy, and the future of media. His boldest statement and prediction is that in 10 years there will be no more print magazines or newspapers. Paraphrasing some of Ballmer's remarks: He sees speech, touch, and natural language as interface innovations across devi [...]

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So Firefox 3 has a new release candidate making news, suggesting that the browser is nearly done. May I suggest that the browser is nowhere near being done until the Mozilla Foundation drops its favoritism to Google and allow users to pick their own default search engine? And that Microsoft ought to be among those choices? Seriously, the entire Firefox+Google love fest is a joke. Let's revisit a little history here. Google fought and fought to pressure Microsoft so that no search provider was the default in Internet Explorer 7, arguing this was the best for consumer choice: "The m [...]

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The Live Search Blog announced the new launch of Search and Give. When you search on Search and Give, Microsoft will donate a penny each time you use that page to search the Web. Microsoft will donate up to 500 searches per person per month. There are over 1 million organizations participating in the program and the organizations can track donations. There are over 100,000 schools and 900,000 non-profit organizations worldwide in this program. Those who participate in Microsoft's Live Search Club can convert the tickets they've earned playing games into contributions. For more informatio [...]

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I've got no problem if Microsoft wants to "bribe" searchers to use its search engine. Even Google has done the same. But the Live Search Cashback program rolled out today seems a pretty inept way to do it, far more likely to disappoint and frustrate than woo searchers. The program is officially live now (see our Microsoft "Cashback" Program Aims To Lure Commercial Shoppers With Rebates, Marketers With CPA Model post), and as part of that, you can better understand how it integrates regular live search results. Barry Schwartz has already written his Playing With Live Search Cashback post [...]

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Microsoft has invested heavily in Live Search and seen its search relevance and results improve but so far not its market share. The company believes its core search results are as good as what you'll find on Google or Yahoo. But its share is flat-to-declining, depending on which of the metrics services you choose to consult (Nielsen most recently found Live Search had dipped below 10 percent). The frustrations surrounding these investments (and improvements) in search without commensurate market share growth is part of what is driving Microsoft's quest for Yahoo or, now, at least its search b [...]

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Microsoft launched Live Search Cashback and Greg will have a more detailed post on his pre-briefing. But I wanted to take you through the experience of using Cashback as a searcher. It has been a rainy week here in New York, and I figured I would start my search and shopping experience looking to buy an umbrella using Cashback. Logically, it all starts by visiting the Cashback URL and typing in your search query at the top. Here is a screen capture of me doing just that: Up came many results, all looking to come from the same vendor, all around sport team branded umbrellas. I figure [...]

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Microsoft has introduced a new program called "Cashback" on Live Search. We were thoroughly briefed and are currently under embargo about some details of the program. But, as others are reporting, it's now live and you can investigate it from a consumer experience perspective. It also has advertiser aspects and implications. It's a pretty smart and interesting program for many reasons, and when the embargo lifts later this morning we'll have more to say about it. [...]

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Two weeks ago, I attended a Microsoft event in London to talk about its progress in search. One of the highlights were these fake, hokey TV ads they showed us in between breaks. I loved them. They're especially funny if you know Britain, but anyone should get a chuckle out of them. Videos are below, via Microsoft's Mel Carson. If Microsoft were brave, they'd actually get aired. Video: Live Search 4 - The hunt for saucy hotel snaps An inside look at the machinery of how Live Search works. Lots of gears and gadgets, heh. And the request? "Oh look. A Mr. G. Swanson from Hemel Hempstead has [...]

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For over a year, Microsoft has been experimenting with games to help build its search marketshare. Yesterday, I learned of one that certainly caught my eye: Indiana Jones Search. Designed for those in the UK, you perform a search: Then at the top of the search results page, two stones turn, with you hoping they'll turn green: Then you get your results. I lost: You also get shown how many people have won prizes that range from a trip to the New Mexico film location, to an Indiana Jones hat, whip, DVDs, and more. If you don't live in the UK or Ireland, y [...]

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Microsoft runs prize campaign for Live Search users from NewMediaAge reports that Microsoft is running another search and win promotion. This time the contest is based in the UK, in partnership with Virgin. It is named the Big Snap Search. Users can go to bigsnapsearch.com and search. At the top of the search results page, two cards will flip over. If those cards match, the user wins. What do you win? According to the terms and conditions: 23 Virgin Experience Days vouchers worth different amounts A pair of tickets to Necker Island 7 nights accommodation for 2 adults sharing a room in [...]

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