Boaz Berkowitz

Cha-Ching: Microsoft Pays Users to Search with Bing

Rokjok777, what do you meant this is year-old news? Bing was only launched this past June and this particular promotion was only launched on August 10, the day the article was published. Bing did exist previously as Live.com but I believe my 2 articles covered why this promotion is different than anything they've done before. Please elaborate.

On Aug 11 06:12 PM Rokjok777 wrote:

> very, very old and stale news, this was launched nearly a year ago

Cha-Ching: Microsoft Pays Users to Search with Bing

Doubleshortetf, you are correct and I mentioned the Microsoft/eBay deal in my article and also linked to an earlier article of mine that covered this in depth:

seekingalpha.com/artic...

Only it was as high as 30-35%, not 20%.

And I agree it is desperate. But desperate measures sometimes work. I don't think Bing will overtake Google by any means but this should increase their market share.
On Aug 11 01:10 PM doubleshortetf wrote:

> Nice ploy but how long can MSFT finance this renewed effort? Can't
> beat GOOG so "bribe" for few clicks? $10k questions is will the
> users continue to use Bing when the cashback is reigned in?
>
> BTW this is 2nd time they did this. MSFT was offering whooping 20%
> cashback on eBay buy-it-now purchase last year if clicked thru live.com.
> It began at 20% and slid to 8% over few months.
>
> My 2-cents is glass is half empty on par with desperation all over
> it.

Cha-Ching: Microsoft Pays Users to Search with Bing

Thanks spaid_fr, it is nice to know I'll get my 15 minutes of fame :)

Bing does offer comparison shopping as well but yes, don't just assume because there is a big discount, that the original price is a competitive one. But I've searched for a number of products from reputable sites (Barnes and Noble, Overstock, SmartBargains, Buy.com, HP.com, etc.). All their prices seem normal, competitive and most importantly, do not seem to be inflated to coincide with the Bing promotion. No guarantee it will last but if these stores value their reputation, they'll behave.

Cha-Ching: Microsoft Pays Users to Search with Bing

Microsoft wouldn't do this unless they were betting it will increase their market share. In the short term, I bet they are right. The long term isn't as certain but will likely have a positive impact there as well.

Amazon vs. EBay: Looking Beyond E-Commerce

This was a well put together article and I agree completely. One other issue that will be interesting is how eBay recently decided to eliminate its "level playing field" concept which is what made eBay a success in the first place. eBay started out giving the little guys a chance to compete with the big guys. Everyone was charged the same fees to compete evenly in what has become the world’s largest market place. But eBay is now giving the big guys a price advantage in the form of lower fees for high volume inventories (starting with Buy.com). This is a complete about face of the level playing field mantra; it gives a decided advantage to the big players once again in a misguided attempt at making eBay more Amazon Marketplace-esque. This, combined with the ever increasing fee structure does not bode well for the many users who have turned their eBay sales into a small home business and depend on this income for their livelihood. It convinced many eBay users that the company cares more about profits than them. Of course most eBay users were already convinced of that. Without serious changes eBay’s glory days are behind them and the future lies with Amazon . Amazon has time and time again proven its creativity and adaptability in seizing new business opportunities.

Amazon vs. EBay: Looking Beyond E-Commerce

Great Article!