
Microsoft To Offer Cash Back To Search Engine Users - nickb
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/20/microsoft-to-offer-cash-back-to-search-engine-users/
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trekker7
Oh man... who wants to bet that Microsoft will be alive in 200 years?
Seriously, how many companies have they gone head to head with in the past 30
years or so... Apple, Lotus, Oracle, Netscape, Nintendo/Sony, Tivo, Google...

Regardless of your opinions about Microsoft, you have to admit that this is
one hell of a resilient company. Even if they fail in some markets they just
keep going and going.

I don't know if this new advertising model will work or not, but I think in 20
years when the NBT comes out from some new startup, MS will be there to fight
against it in the marketplace.

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zandorg
Paypal used to give $5 to new users. I estimate that this is what put them on
top, not (as Max Levchin guesses) that they spent hundreds of millions of
dollars on fraud.

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xirium
This will be awkward to implement but not for the obvious reason of avoiding
automated fraud.

In some jurisdictions, it is illegal to offer kickbacks for certain products
and services, if not all. For example, in the UK, I believe that it is illegal
to offer consumers cash to accept a line of credit. I believe it is for this
reason that UK credit card affiliate programmes specifically prohibit
affiliates from sharing revenue with consumers.

If you offer a cashback programme to end users, you'll have to forego some
lucrative advertising and/or explain to end users that some offers in some
jurisdictions don't provide any cashback and/or explain fraudulent clawbacks
to a large number of end users. In addition, the exceptions will be awkward to
implement, maintain and administrate.

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rms
Wow, that's a good idea. Go Ballmer.

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axod
Their product is so bad they have to bribe users to use it ;)

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rms
It is a solid way for a second tier player to gain ground in any web market
and here Balmer is trying to do it for the biggest market. At the very least,
this is a good way of forcing the market to take less money from consumers.

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axod
There are a million cashback sites out there though. You can get cashback, or
commission on anything you buy online already. Just seems a bit desparate to
me.

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rms
Yes, there are a million cashback sites because it is profitable. Now MS has
the biggest one and they can upset a market also. It won't save their company,
but can anyone actually state why this is a bad business decision for
Microsoft?

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axod
Well for me, it cheapens the product. It's like they feel they need to give
people stuff to get them to use their product.

IMHO they should concentrate on making a better product that people _want_ to
use without being paid to use it.

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rms
Certainly it cheapens the product. They already lost their chance to win the
Search Marketplace... Arrington talked about Yahoo doing a "scorched earth"
tactic on the market. MS is doing the same thing by attempting to take away
users while simultaneously cheapening the market.

At this point, is there anything Microsoft could do to beat Google at search?
The only thing left is for someone to offer a completely free API.

