Microsoft merges product search, Cashback

Microsoft said on Wednesday that it has combined its product search engine with its Live Search Cashback, a product that gives users a rebate on certain purchases made directly after using Live Search.

"The new site unifies Live Search Products (the shopping vertical within Live Search) and Cashback to make it easier for you to research, compare products, and save money," Microsoft said in a blog posting.

The move also reflects the fact that on the back end, Microsoft has shifted the underlying engine for Cashback over from technology from its Jellyfish acquisition and onto the primary Live Search platform. The company launched the Cashback effort nearly a year ago in an effort to try and boost its overall slice of the search market as well as within the lucrative commerce segment.

Microsoft's changes to the product search feature come ahead of a broader revamp of Live Search due later this year. Microsoft is currently testing the new search, code-named Kumo, with its own employees. However, as we noted earlier this week, Microsoft still has work to do to grow its search share, even inside its own walls.

Live Search still badly trails both Google and Yahoo in the search market. For March, Microsoft had 10.3 percent of the U.S. search market, according to Nielsen Online, compared with 64.2 percent for Google and 15.8 percent for Yahoo. Also of note, Microsoft's year-over-year search growth was less than 1 percent compared with 16 percent growth for the market as a whole.

[Mr. Dee]

I love Microsoft products and services, but I must admit it, Live Search is just a stinker. Very irrelevant results, its slow and not personalized enough.

[JasonCe]

I'd say the opposite. Live Search results are getting more relevant with every release. And as of personalization, it is light years ahead when compared to other search engines.

[shootthecops]

so let me get this straight. a company puts an ad on MSN, charging top dollar (to make up for ad placement), you buy said product instead of shopping around (which requires leaving the search engine), you get a small percentage back on the overpriced product.

hmmmmm...

[abhishek_p]

This is something they should have done long back... Good move... Otherwise, Live Search and Live Cashback search were 2 different searches and I stopped going to it the moment cash-back dropped back to 3-5% from 20-30%...

[t8]

Desperado - Why don´t you come to your senses?

[fxf008]

The search engine is substandard by any criteria. The irrelevant results I get time and time again waste more of my time than any money I would save on overpriced merchandise with cash back.

[JasonCe]

I respectfully disagree.

I use Live Search everyday and I almost always find what I am looking for. If I can't, I use Google, and most of the time Google can't find it either. I would say Live Search and Google are very close at this point.

The difference is in people's minds. It is more perception than reality at this point. If Microsoft pulls a good marketing move with their advertisement push this year, and makes people really try Live Search/Kumo, I think they will start getting more market share. A deal with Yahoo won't hurt either.

[Dalkorian]

Either we found the one person who likes what everyone else on the planet can't stand (one man's trash is another man's treasure), or we found yet another masquerading M$ employee hoping to fool everyone into thinking he's just a consumer who happens to like everything M$ does to enslave him.

Either way, pardon me while I puke.

[chapibol]

I use Live Search as my main search engine too. and like jasonce said I always find what I'm looking for.
@Dalkorian what reality are you living in? there are lots and lots of people who like Microsoft. haters like you are the minority who go to every forum, webpage, chatroom, etc to make it seem like more people hate microsoft. trust me buddy there are more of us than there are of u and thats not gonna change anytime soon !!