In a familiar scheme, Microsoft rolled out a new incentive scheme for it’s poorly performing Bing search engine akin to frequent flier miles, or a Randall’s card (for those not familiar with Randall’s, it’s an awful chain of grocery stores). The scheme is as old as time, just for using Bing, Microsoft will give you reward points which you can spend on this stuff. This is a type of loyalty program, which critics argue basically amounts to a bribe, and at best feels a lot like the prizes at the arcade. Why would Microsoft repeatedly use these incentives in order to get people to use Livesearch, Live, And Bing? Because everyone just Googles instead. Why does everyone just Google instead? Probably because they don’t seem desperate.
