cashback

Microsoft is still trying to sort things out following a glitch on Friday that prevented people from getting a promised 40 percent cash back on purchases made on HP.com via Microsoft's Live Search Cashback program.

A crush of traffic led to a glitch that apparently led to a number of problems. Some shoppers were credited with only 3 percent cash back, rather than the promised 40 percent. Microsoft has said all those who made purchases through Live Search during the Black Friday promotion would get the higher rebate.

But some folks were unable to make their purchase at … Read more

Microsoft on Monday apologized for glitches on its Live Search Cashback site, which frustrated online shoppers looking to scoop up Black Friday deals.

Amid heavy volume on Friday, consumers encountered a range of problems from site sluggishness to seeing the wrong amount of cash back show up in their accounts.

The problem was particularly acute with shoppers who were looking to take advantage of a promotion with Hewlett-Packard that offered buyers a 40 percent discount when visiting HP.com through Microsoft's Live Search Cashback. Some shoppers, however, reported seeing only a 3 percent cash back amount posted to their account. … Read more

Microsoft is getting more aggressive with Live Search Cashback, a program that offers price cuts for those who buy products found with the company's search engine, touting a 25 percent rebate for items purchased through eBay.

eBay has long been a Cashback partner, but the company went to the trouble of promoting the deal on its Live Search blog Thursday. Kok Waii Wong, Microsoft's group product manager for Live Search, announced the 25 percent eBay rebate on the blog. There are some conditions, though, including a $200 cashback limit and payment through PayPal only. It's offered only … Read more

Microsoft's Cashback program, which offers people discounts on products purchased through the company's Live search engine, is attracting visitors, research firm Hitwise said Friday.

"We see an interesting trend where the share of visits to the Cashback section of MSN Live is increasing," said research director Heather Dougherty on the company's blog. "Eleven weeks ago, MSN Cashback represented 3.75 percent of the traffic to Live.com and grew to 6.29 percent last week. This rise in Cashback's traffic underscores the interest in the program, which is likely to be getting a … Read more

Microsoft's latest effort to get people to use its search service is something called SearchPerks, which gives people points for using the search engine that can later be redeemed for prizes.

Users who agree to download a small program to track their usage get one "ticket" per day for every Live Search query, up to 25 per day. The program runs through April, at which point users can "cash in" the tickets that they get and trade them in for prizes or donate them to a charity.

It's the latest in a series of financial incentive-related projects from Redmond, joining such efforts as Live Search Club, Search and Give, and Live Search Cashback, a program Microsoft introduced in May.

The latest project doesn't just require one to use Microsoft's search engine, however. At least for now, it also requires Microsoft's browser (Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher) as well as a Windows PC. Microsoft said those latter restrictions are not necessarily permanent.

"At this time, SearchPerks is a limited promotion, though we remain open to expending availability of the promotion to different browsers and operating systems based on consumer interest," Microsoft said.

There's also the broader question of what it says about Live Search overall that Microsoft has to keep coming up with gimmicks to get people to try it. Not to mention the fact that Microsoft has continued to struggle to make inroads on Google in overall share, promotions notwithstanding. According to figures recently released by ComScore, Google increased its share of the U.S. search market in August--it's at 63 percent--while Yahoo and Microsoft both slipped a bit, to 19.6 percent and 8.3 percent respectively.

In an interview, Live Search Senior Director Frederick Savoye said that the new business models, as Microsoft likes to refer to these programs, are just one part of a three-prong strategy that includes continued improvements in core search as well as in vertical search, or "simplifying key tasks" in Microsoft parlance.

Microsoft has seen mixed results with its incentive programs. Live Search Club, for example, gave Microsoft an initial boost, but its gains appear to be directly tied to its level of incentives. With Live Search Cashback, Microsoft said it has seen some advertisers boost their Live Search spend. eBay, in particular, is spending 50 percent more on Live Search thanks to Cashback, which Microsoft says offers significantly higher conversion rates than traditional search. … Read more

Google is once again running its back-to-school savings promotion that gives anyone a $5 to $10 discount on purchases made at one of the partnered stores using its Checkout service. Online shoppers must spend a certain amount at each store to get the discount, although unlike some previous promotions the discounts are not limited per user or per retailer, meaning you can come back multiple times to get the discount as long as you're hitting the minimum.

The much more interesting story is how well Microsoft's Live Search cash back program seems to have been going since its launch … Read more

As I made the usual morning slog through my in-box Monday, I was about to skip past a news release touting a back-to-school promotion for Live Search Cashback, when I noticed one of the featured deals was on a ThinkPad tablet PC from electronic shoe retailer Zappos.com.

Thinking for sure it was a typo, I went to harass the person who sent me the release. The funny thing is, it really is Zappos selling that tablet computer. I missed it when Zappos expanded from high heels to high tech.

While the departure sounds strange, Zappos certainly wouldn't be … Read more

I was listening in on a conference call this morning where the folks from Search Engine Watch lavished praise on Microsoft's Live Search Cashback program.

"I think it is potentially a game changer," said Search Engine Watch's Kevin Heisler, speaking on a call organized by investment bank Collins Stewart. "It's really I think a brilliant move by Microsoft, Bill Gates, and his team."

Later in the call, Heisler went a step further, suggesting that the program could even be bigger than the government's economic stimulus program, in which most taxpayers are receiving … Read more

Michael Arrington has an interesting post today on TechCrunch in which he predicts that Microsoft Live Search Cashback will have a material impact on Microsoft's share of the search market. It's worth a read but Microsoft will still have to scale a few mountains before this becomes a smash success.

I suppose Microsoft will get some initial lift from the news, but the PR glow will ebb. Seriously, how many of you really plan to use Microsoft search in hopes of making a buck? At some point, the offering will be judged on its comprehensiveness and that's … Read more