MS tried the same thing with their "passport" single-sign-on-shopping system back in the dotcom boom days. It didn't work then either. People only used it for the money and ignored it otherwise. You would think they could learn from their own mistakes. I'm surprised it took them 2 years to figure it out this time around, it must have been a massive cash suck the way people like those on fatwallet have been milking it. Funny thing about that - the only reason I even knew about bing cashback is because o
MS tried the same thing with their "passport" single-sign-on-shopping system back in the dotcom boom days. It didn't work then either. People only used it for the money and ignored it otherwise. You would think they could learn from their own mistakes. I'm surprised it took them 2 years to figure it out this time around, it must have been a massive cash suck the way people like those on fatwallet have been milking it. Funny thing about that - the only reason I even knew about bing cashback is because of fatwallet. Whatever other means of advertising they used, it sure didn't make it to my ears.
The problem was the execution. If they wanted people to actually use it, then they needed to make the cashback completely random. Use it for a month and then perhaps you get a 12% cash back offer for a store of your choice. But that might NOT happen as well. So you'd have to keep using it until it did happen. As those familiar with the most effective methods of operant conditioning (psychology) will understand, this "random" nature (which mimics the "gambling" reward) is by far the most addictive.
So it would work like this-- 1). user uses google. 2). user decided they want to buy a laptop. But, they can't just go to bing and search for "tigerdirect" and get 12.1% cash back. 3). Instead, they have to begin using bing regularly for all their searches. Perhaps they set up a hotmail email account too. 4). Microsoft tracks this, and randomly starts putting cashback links on the side when they search for something like "netbook" or "laptop" 5). ??? 6). Profit! Microsoft has successfully gotten users to try out their search engine, daily, for several weeks. Long enough for them to figure out what they like/don't like about the search results.
Duh! (Score:5, Informative)
MS tried the same thing with their "passport" single-sign-on-shopping system back in the dotcom boom days. It didn't work then either. People only used it for the money and ignored it otherwise. You would think they could learn from their own mistakes. I'm surprised it took them 2 years to figure it out this time around, it must have been a massive cash suck the way people like those on fatwallet have been milking it. Funny thing about that - the only reason I even knew about bing cashback is because o
Re:Duh! (Score:2)
MS tried the same thing with their "passport" single-sign-on-shopping system back in the dotcom boom days. It didn't work then either. People only used it for the money and ignored it otherwise. You would think they could learn from their own mistakes. I'm surprised it took them 2 years to figure it out this time around, it must have been a massive cash suck the way people like those on fatwallet have been milking it. Funny thing about that - the only reason I even knew about bing cashback is because of fatwallet. Whatever other means of advertising they used, it sure didn't make it to my ears.
The problem was the execution. If they wanted people to actually use it, then they needed to make the cashback completely random. Use it for a month and then perhaps you get a 12% cash back offer for a store of your choice. But that might NOT happen as well. So you'd have to keep using it until it did happen. As those familiar with the most effective methods of operant conditioning (psychology) will understand, this "random" nature (which mimics the "gambling" reward) is by far the most addictive.
So it would work like this--
1). user uses google.
2). user decided they want to buy a laptop. But, they can't just go to bing and search for "tigerdirect" and get 12.1% cash back.
3). Instead, they have to begin using bing regularly for all their searches. Perhaps they set up a hotmail email account too.
4). Microsoft tracks this, and randomly starts putting cashback links on the side when they search for something like "netbook" or "laptop"
5). ???
6). Profit! Microsoft has successfully gotten users to try out their search engine, daily, for several weeks. Long enough for them to figure out what they like/don't like about the search results.