Paid Search Takes On New Meaning
November 14th, 2007 : Carrie DowningPoor Microsoft. They’re so desperate to get a better grip on the search market that they’re paying people to use their engine. It’s called the Live Search Trial Program. Yup – Microsoft’s new big bad search strategy isn’t a new algorithm or a better user interface. Instead, Microsoft is bribing you with prizes.
Nice try, Microsoft. I might have given your engine a little love just to win a prize, but I can’t even figure out how to participate in the program. Do I have to be a Hotmail user?
I’d rather try Blingo, powered by Google’s search engine (although Google’s universal search features are somewhat depreciated in Blingo’s interface). For 25 searches a day, you are automatically entered to win a prize on Blingo. When you refer your friends, any prize they win, you win as well.
Feel free to be one of my friends…. 
November 21st, 2007 at 2:09 am
I use Blingo, and I’ve found that my results are extremely inconsistent. While it’s powered by Google, it is lacking something, somewhere.
Sometimes I’ll receive a suspiciously small amount of results for my query, but when I perform the same search on google.com, I receive twice as many hits.
Other times, the results are exactly the same. I can’t figure it out.
I’m not sure mediocre results are worth the Fandango certificate I won last January.
I haven’t been impressed with Live Search (to be honest, I haven’t been impressed by a search engine since I moved from AltaVista/DogPile to Google wayyy back in ‘99), but I HAVE been impressed with Live Search Maps. Next time you’re playing with Google maps in satellite view, check out Live Search Maps’ version - it blows Google out of the water.
November 21st, 2007 at 10:49 am
You know, I noticed the same the same thing. I searched for something fairly specific (can’t remember what) and only got a handful of results. The same search with Google provided me with many more.
I checked out Live Search Maps…. Wow. I love the the hybrid and the bird’s eye view.