New Bing Rewards program may bring searchers - and marketing revenue - to Microsoft
Published September 24, 2010
With many marketers adjusting their search campaigns after the recent Yahoo-to-Bing transition, Microsoft is hoping to attract more users to its portal with a new customer loyalty initiative called Bing Rewards.
Bing Rewards gives searchers credits for specific tasks, such as setting Bing as their default browser or conducting queries. Participants can win a variety of prizes, ranging from utensil sets to games and DVDs.
To partake in the loyalty program, users must install a Bing toolbar, register with Windows Live, have a Windows machine and use Internet Explorer.
As Search Engine Land notes, this isn't the first rewards program that Bing has initiated, however, its goal extends beyond simply winning over users. According to Microsoft's Stefan Weitz, the program's objective is to engage Bing users in deeper conversations. For example, the Bing toolbar will offer users search recommendations and messages.
Before Bing and Yahoo merged organic results, Microsoft's search engine accounted for 12.8 percent of the search market. More than one-third of queries (33.8 percent) are conducted through the two search engines combined, though. Bing Rewards may help increase searches even further.