Wabbadabba gets into the spirit of Christmas

Yahoo-powered search engine wabbadabba has launched headlong into the spirit of Christmas with what could be the silliest Christmas prize give-away based on the 'Twelve Days of Christmas' rhyme.

Wabbadabba lets users win prizes as they search, ranging from £5 and £10 Amazon vouchers right through to Nintendo Wii's and even a 42-inch flat screen TV.

To add to the seasonal festive mood, the site is taking a light-hearted look at the Christmas rhyme will see the traditional gifts in the song replaced by fun wabbadabba presents such as:

A partridge in a pear tree – A cartridge and a rare cup of tea
Two turtle doves – Two purple gloves
Three French hens – Three wrench tens (10mm Spanners)
Four calling birds – Four Lemon curds
Five golden rings – Five stolen things (from around the wabbadabba office!)
Six geese a-laying – Six police songs playing (a police CD)
Seven swans a-swimming – Seven Bonds for Spinning (Casino Royale DVDs)
Eight maids a-milking – Eight dairy milks for eating (Dairy Milk chocolate bars)
Nine ladies dancing – Nine daisies for planting
Ten lords a-leaping – Ten chords for weeping (cheesy air guitar songs CD)
Eleven pipers piping – Eleven pipers for swiping (bags of Pipers crisps)
Twelve drummers drumming – Twelve funds for plumbing (sanitising a well –see below)

Wabbadabba will be giving away the prizes in addition to its normal prize quota.

"We've been having a great time at wabbadabba Towers giving away prizes since we launched back in September and we thought this would be fun at Christmas," said Ben Akin-Smith, head of innovation at wabbadabba.

"We also feel strongly about giving to those less fortunate hence the twelfth day has a slightly more serious message, with twelve lucky wabbadabba users not only winning Amazon vouchers but having two drinking wells made safe for families in Sierra Leone in their name."

Akin-Smith told vnunet.com that some users are still sceptical about the site, with around 10 to 15 per cent of prizes not being claimed for fear of some sort of catch.

”It's taken people a while to realise there are no catches and it really is as simple as searching and winning, but people are really getting the hang of it now. Prizes are flying off the shelves as more and more people use wabbadabba to inject a bit more fun in to what can be a mundane everyday task," he said.