Microsoft is offering
web users the chance to get their hands on $1m worth of prizes in return for
using its MSN Search
website.
In what seems like a frantic bid to get users to switch from arch-rival
Google, the software giant
has launched a three-month promotion around
MSNSearchandWin.
"We are hopeful that once people give it a shot they will want to come back
again and again," said Lisa Gurry, director of marketing at MSN Search.
According to
Nielsen//NetRatings,
MSN's search engine ranks third behind Google and
Yahoo. MSN had 10.9 per cent
of web searches in December 2005, down from 14 per cent in December 2004.
The business model of using incentives to attract web searchers is not new.
For one Google-partnered site,
Blingo.com, giving away
prizes to web search users is the entire business structure.
Blingo receives revenue from Google for referring web search users to its
results. The company takes some of that revenue and dispenses prizes to users
who access Google via the site.
Blingo chief executive Frank Anderson claimed that the site has tens of
thousands of users. "It's the same business as Google has; we're just using
incentives to get people to use our site," he said.
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