Study: Microsoft Cashback attracting visitors

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.

The Cashback program is attracting attention of visitors to Microsoft's search sites, Hitwise reported.

(Credit: Hitwise)

"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 boost from shoppers looking to save money and stretch their budgets given the current economic climate."

While Cashback accounts for an increasing fraction of Microsoft searches, though, the company's overall search share has stayed level at about 5.4 percent in July, August, and September, Hitwise said. Over that period, Yahoo dropped from 18.7 percent to 18.1 percent, while Google increased from 70.8 percent to 71.2 percent.

The Cashback site on its own ranked 12th in search engine traffic for the week ending September 27, Dougherty said.

Paying people to search, in effect, has its limits, though. One analyst said Microsoft's newer SearchPerks incentive, which gives points for searching that can be redeemed for prizes, smacks of desperation and could hurt the company's reputation. (Also, it requires Internet Explorer to sign up.)

Microsoft, though, appears more worried about getting brand recognition in search in the first place than about having that brand hurt. "We know we have some challenges with the brand and perception. Simple awareness is still a challenge for us," said spokeswoman Whitney Burk earlier. And paying people to search can work: "Over the long-term these programs have changed people's behavior."

[Super2online]

I have made several comments on previous articles about this subject stating that I think there is merit to this approach and have been slammed by a few people that think the world lives, breaths and eats Google. It's nice to see some statistics that show that my personal opinion on this subject also had merit.

It just seems to me that when people are hurting financially but still need to purchase the same things they have always needed, using these programs becomes a very wise decision. Who's to say how long these will be offered, but I for one will use them as long as they are available.

[bhushan bhaagii]

Well, whatever may be the statistics, I just typed hotmail.com in Live Search.
The first 3 results are MSN PostMaster, Hotmail Wikepedia, Hotmail.com-whois.domain tools, the list goes on. Theres not one single link that
takes you directly to hotmail.com If such is the result for one of windows' own
fairly iconic brand, then you can understand why Microsoft has remained in
the lower rungs of the ladder, looking up, wistfully.

[bhushan bhaagii]

Whatever be the statistics, I just now typed hotmail.com in Live Search.
These are the first three results: MSN POSTMASTER, HOTMAIL--Wikepedia, the free encyclopaedia, Hotmail.com-Hotmail--whois.domaintools.com. The list goes on,
(at least one the first page) without a single link taking you directly to hotmail.com.
If this is the state with one of Windows' own fairly iconic brand, then one can imagine
the results in other search terms.

[CrashPad63]

Thats strange I just typed in hotmail.com and it pulls up this....
MSN.com
... offering MSNBC News, sports, MSN Money, games, videos, entertainment & celebrity gossip, weather, shopping and more great content, as well as Windows Live services such as Hotmail ...

www.msn.com · Cached page
Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger Connect, share, and make every conversation count

get.live.com/messenger/overview · Cached page
Hotmail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hotmail (officially Windows Live Hotmail, previously MSN Hotmail) is one of the oldest free webmail services, launched in 1996 and acquired in 1997 by Microsoft. It was originally founded by Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia. It is now part of Microsoft's Windows Live range of services.
Features · Development history · Awards · Spam policy · Criticisms

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotmail · Cached page
Windows Live Hotmail
Windows Live Hotmail Powerful and free, with security technology from Microsoft

get.live.com/mail/overview · Cached page
MSN Postmaster
... ESPs), postmasters, and domain administrators a location from which to learn more about these policies and the solutions related to sending communications to Windows Live Hotmail ...

postmaster.hotmail.com · Cached page
Live Search
Find exactly what you are looking for - FAST! With Live Search.

www.live.com · Cached page
Microsoft Online Services Home
MSN Hotmail ... Free Services & Betas

join.msn.com · Cached page
Hotmail
www.hotmail.com.com · Cached page
How to Forward Windows Live Hotmail Email to Another Hotmail or Email ...
Have Windows Live Hotmail redirect all incoming mail from one account to another (or, if you use Windows Live Hotmail Plus, to any email address).

email.about.com/od/windowslivehotmailtips/qt/et_forward_wlhm.htm · Cached page
Now some of this might be the fact that hotmail.com is no longer valid. It is now Windows Live Hotmail. Oh I think you really meant to mention that. But folks looking for hotmail would have been tking to hotmail by clicking that first link. Kind of like it is supposed too.

[palewook]

lemmings. for using a sub-par search engine for 6 months, you'll earn a free t-shirt. and lose all those moments of your life surfing to bad links or poor information.

[DrtyDogg]

I never got a t-shirt, oh that's right because you are talking about something other than what the report is on. OTOH I have received a pair of games, a bag for my wife and I'm waiting on an XBOX controller from Search Club. Flexicon and Chictionary are as good as a time killer as any other flash games on the net.

[iertry]

i think the problem with the search engine battles is that people have gotten so used to the order google displays sites in. For example if I search for guitar tabs I know what sites to expect in my results and in what order. When you change search engine this all changes and people don't want to spend the time familiarizing themselves with something new. It's a bit similar to mac vs pc vs linux. There may be something better to suit your specific needs but you don't want to spend time getting used to it.

[Penguinisto]

Err, @ Super2online... apparently MSFT's program didn't gain it any share against the competition - instead it only wound up costing MSFT money paid out towards existing customers.

Of course, it may have stanched the bleeding, but MSFT's marketshare has remained pretty much flat the whole time (read the article, eh?)

[DrtyDogg]

Once again, know what you are talking about before talking about it. Cashback doesn't cost MSFT anything, it only generates revenue. The entire idea is to test out a different payment model for advertisements.

[Penguinisto]

@DD: It does cost them money - they have to adminster the program and lend resources to it. They had to negotiate the discounts. They had to spend resources and time (and yes, money) to keep it going.

/P

[CrashPad63]

Penguine, once again you talk out your ***. Anything but everything MS is bad according to you. Well 93% of the PC market doesnt think so. Neither does 70% of the browser market. Or the Office productive suite. But of course you know that.
Why do you persist bashing a company you hate? Are you some kind of Don Quioxte? Whatever you are, you are not objective. Due to that your comments are irrelavent.
But you have a nice day!

[David Dudley]

It's so easy to "beat" this system. For example, do a search on numbers 1 - 25 and your done for the day, points in hand so to speak, back to Firefox and Google within a few short minutes.

[DrtyDogg]

how does "beat" cashback? It doesn't, you are talking about searchperks.

[CrashPad63]

That is not "beting the system. Youve used it and MS gets better marketshare because of it. A win for MS, and a win for you. Exactly what this program is designed for. Great job!!!

[eltoro2827]

hopefully google dies

[t8]

Hey Microsoft, pay my mortgage and I will convert to live.com one day a week. I will also use Vista if you buy me a new car.

Otherwise no way Microsoft.

[aintnorainbowdorothy]

I have Vista Ultimate exclusively on my Desktop and Laptops. It's a great program. Those of yyou poormouthing Vista or Microsoft in general, need to pay attention to the world. Google gives you as many hundreds of thousands of results as you want. Meanwhile, Windows Live Search is actually more relevant. Try it. You just might like it.

[JuggerNaut]

It's pretty sad when Microsoft has to stoop this low to get people to use their sorry excuse for a search engine.

Microsoft is dead, long live Google :-)

[Assistant_Village_Idiot]

When I speak with MS tech agents by phone on a server technical issue - the agent uses Google to search for answers. I've asked them! I could hear typing in the background and asked what they use to look up obscure issues - Google says they. I thought maybe they had a secret MS database for the tough stuff - turns out it's Google.

[jinx101a]

You people talk about Google and Microsoft like they're sports teams. Microsoft being the equivant of the New York Yankees. Lots of money, doesn't always work out, but always a force to be reckoned with. Seriously though, who cares... so Microsoft's tactic midely worked in this case. They could provide a phenonemal service and you lemmings would still be in here making stuff up to complain about.

"When I speak with MS tech agents by phone on a server technical issue - the agent uses Google to search for answers". At least they have tech agents for support, it's better than spending your day in an IRC chat room trying to get help answering a Linux question from a guy named f0xx13r who wants you to make some changes to the OS source to tweak it and recompile the kernel.